A Dreamer's Destiny
by Kuramahiei1091
Summary: All OC's except for Chase. A bunch of normal kids' worlds get turned upside down as Chase is released from a 2000 year old curse, and they're selected to be the new dragons to save the world. The problem? School doesn't excuse absenses for saving the worl
1. Prologue

_Okay So i decided to scrap the old version and completely restart the story. I think it's alot better this time, so here's the prologue, I've got alot more coming soon._

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The landscape was enveloped in an ebony shade of darkness. The sky complimented the land with its own dim black countenance. Rain was falling from the sky in extensive amounts as lighting streaked through the sky, and thunder roared throughout. Troy ran up the ancient, crumbling stone steps that led to the entrance of the sacred Xylos Temple, an ancient temple which legends say house strong and valuable treasures.

Troy proceeded cautiously, but bravely, into the temple. When he entered he realized the temple was bigger than it appeared from the outside. Troy stepped into the atrium, lowered his cloak's hood, and proceeded to shake out his shaggy hair in a vain attempt to quick dry it. Troy looked around and noticed and began to appreciate the complex workings of the ancient temple. He noticed that the only thing lighting the temple were torches placed in intervals along the walls.

Troy drew his sword and proceeded down the main hallway with caution, always checking everywhere for any sort of trap. Every step was taken with precision not wanting to disturb anything.

After his trek through the hallway, Troy finally reached the sacred, innermost chamber. The chamber was ten times larger than the atrium Troy entered in. The domed ceiled stretched upward for forever. In the center rose a pedestal with three treasures, each one similar to a section of a circle. The treasures were gold and glistening from the light of torches, dispersing the light through the entirety of the room.

Troy hesitantly proceeded, he didn't know why, but he felt like it was his destiny to get those treasures. Each pace was small and thought out. Troy's head never stopped moving as he constantly scanned the area for signs of any disturbances.

Troy reached the central podium and grabbed one of the treasures, the Crest of Shiaku, examined it, and noticed a sword-like engraving on it. He placed the treasure in his pocket. As he began to reach for the next treasure, a shadowed figured emerged from above and landed opposite Troy. They grabbed one of the treasures, the Zarabi Emblem, for their own use.

Their eyes were strictly focused on Troy. Realizing this, even though their face was masked by a hood, he knew something bad was happening. He put his hood back up to conceal his face and gripped his sword tighter. Troy and the shadowy figure circled the podium, matching each other step for step, motion for motion, each waiting for an opportunity to strike and claim the third and final piece. After returning to where they started, with nothing different from before, Troy looked deeply into the pursuer's masked eyes and asked,

"Who are you?"

The masked figure gripped their sword tight, and raised it, straightening their shoulders, and looked straight at Troy with a demeaning glare and replied,

"I am…"

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_o what do you think? Its alot longer than the last version too._


	2. The Beginning of a New Destiny

_Okay so here's the first "real chapter" It's pretty lengthy, but interesting too, alot of drama from the get go,_

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Chapter 1

CRASH! Troy looked around and noticed he was on his bedroom floor. His blankets were sprawled everywhere and one pillow inconspicuously made its way across the room in a sleep-induced throw. After realizing he wasn't in a temple, but instead on his cold floor he said to him, "It must've been a dream. Man I need to stop drinking Mountain Dew before I go to bed." He felt around on his stand for his phone. When he finally found it he looked at the clock, it read 4:22 AM. "4:22, I still have two hours before I need to get up." He grabbed his misplaced pillow and crawled back it to bed and threw all the covers on top of him. He closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep, but he just couldn't. He rolled around, tossed and turned, and ended up on his back, staring up at the ceiling with so many thoughts rushing through his head.

"Where was I, what was I doing who was that other person? It all felt so real, but it must've been a dream, it had to have been a dream. Maybe a snack or two will help me settle down."

Troy quietly walked through the hallway and downstairs, careful not to wake his parents or his sisters, because in his mind, he wasn't sure which was worse. Troy finally made it to the kitchen. He slowly turned on the light careful not to blind himself, and opened the fridge. He stated at the contents inside for a while before making up his mind. After mulling his options he decided on a couple of slices of cold pizza and a tall glass of root beer.

Troy walked out into the living room and sat down on the couch to enjoy his "meal." He grabbed the remote and turned on the TV, but quickly remembered to hit the mute button. As he flipped through channels looking for something to watch he began to chow down into his first slice of pizza. Eventually he stopped at his favorite channel ESPN. "Hmm I wonder what tape delay hoops game they have on tonight." He said through a mouthful of cheese. After washing it down with a swig of root beer he read the caption on the screen. "Duke at North Carolina. Sweet! I can see the end of this now!"

Troy used the game to clear his mind off of things, as he watched one of his favorite players, Tyler Hansbrough, systematically pick apart Duke's defense, he gave a silent cheer with ever basket and raised his still half full glass in the air in celebration.

With less than two minutes left in the game and North Carolina holding a seventeen point lead. Troy felt confident. Watching his team gain a strong victory over their hated rivals relaxed him and cleared his mind, he felt he would be able to go to sleep. He looked at his phone again. "4:52, not bad, I can still get some nice sleep in."

As Troy began to leave he got up to gather his dishes, he looked up and noticed his sister Carly standing at the top of the stairs looking down at him. "What are you doing Troy? Do you realize it's five in the morning and we have school in two hours?" She asked in a demanding tone.

"Nothing its fine can't sleep that's all, needed a little snack to calm me down. Hey, sorry I woke you."

"It's okay," Carly said as she walked downstairs and sat on the couch next to where Troy was sitting, "Come on what's up, no one gets up in the middle of the night, indulges themselves in food and watches old basketball without a reason. What's yours?"

"It's nothing," Troy replied as he started walking toward the kitchen.

"Come on, I'm your sister I know when something's up I'm not stupid. So get back out here and let's talk about it."

"Fine, hold on a minute though," Troy said as he went into the kitchen to reload his plate and glass with more if he was to stay up.

As he was walking back into the room he told his sister, "You do realize that neither of us are probably getting back to sleep right?"

"Yeah I know, oh well, what's 2 hours, I mean I'll just sleep later."

"True, true, you got a point there," Troy said as he sat down in his spot, and exchanged the glass in his hand for the remote on the table, turned on the early edition of Spertscenter, and began to eat more pizza.

"Troy," Carly said and gave him a stern look.

"What you want a piece?" Troy said with the most innocent look ever for someone with half a slice of pizza hanging out of their mouth.

"Ew no, how can you stand to eat that stuff cold anyways?"

"What? It tastes pretty good. You don't know what you're missing" He said eagerly trying to get her to join in his early morning feast.

"Nah, I'll pass," Carly said, "must you watch sportscenter at the same time?"

"As a matter of fact yes I must"

"Ugh fine, just don't turn it up, the last we need is to wake Abby up."

"Heh yeah true, she is not a morning person" Troy said as the both laughed at the thought of their sister exploding at them at five in the morning.

"So Troy, anyways, what's going on?" Carly asked him, foregoing the small talk.

"Eh, a few things, I don't know, I've just had a lot going on lately." Troy said calmly before downing some more root beer and watching Chris Lofton sink another 3-point shot in a highlight reel versus Kentucky.

"Like what? Come Troy, you're not helping, be more specific. Um is it school?"

"I don't know, I guess a little, I mean there's all the homework, bad teachers, and all the drama. There's a lot of drama I have to hear about. Then there's soccer too and the field trip and grr, there's just too much stress."

"I know what you mean, school sucks doesn't it? I've had 3 tests this week, in hard classes,"

"Whoa wait, you have hard classes? Since when?" Troy said sarcastically

"Ha ha very funny. Seriously, school's stressful for everyone. I mean, don't get me started on our teachers, grr I could teach better than some of them! Yeah I am sorry though, you do have to suffer through a lot of drama, but then again, I kinda do end up usually somehow in there. And soccer, I'm just sick of sick of it. We have fun but sometimes, I don't know it's just not as fun."

"Hey wait a minute, who has the problems here, me or you?"

"True, I'm sorry, I did kinda go crazy there, didn't I? But see, we all have the basic same set of problems, but that doesn't mean we all get up at 4 in the morning and eat nasty pizza and watch reruns of college basketball games."

"Well it's 4 o'clock somewhere so people are always eating at 4 in the morning, it just might not be 4 in their time zone."

"Don't try to twist the words of that stupid country song around, it's not working."

"Oh fine"

"So what's the real problem, is it girl problems? I thought you finally got things sorted out with that."

"Well that's not the big thing, but yeah, I don't know,"

"How do you not know?"

"I don't know"

"Ugh Troy, not funny, well do you still like her?"

"Yeah, of course,"

"Well have you told her?"

"Um-"

"That's a no. Gosh why won't you tell her?

"I don't know, I really want to, I guess I'm just scared to or something,"

"What that's crazy, why are you scared? Don't tell me rejection. I mean I know the whole thing with Taryn didn't work out."

"Oh jeez, don't bring her up. That was just, I don't know, bad timing. She doesn't have anything to do with this."

"Okay well if you say so. But come on Troy, gosh you're always like this; you always have been to shy to tell anyone. You're never shy about anything else, come on,"

"Jeez, somebody's bossy for four in the morning. Chill. I mean, I guess I am just scared. I know it could work with us, but I wish I knew what she was thinking."

"Well there is one easy way to find out what she's thinking."

"What?"

"Tell her idiot!" She told him as she hit him across the head.

"Hey, what was that for?" Troy asked as he rubbed his head where she hit him.

"To hopefully knock some common sense into you. Now tomorrow you're going to tell her you like her, okay? Good."

"I'll think about it. Even thought it'd be so much easier if I could figure out what she thought of me, but I doubt I'll be able to."

"Troy, look, you and her are great friends, it shouldn't be this hard. Just talk to her don't just go up to her randomly and say, 'Hey I like you' just strike up a conversation and wait for the right time, it'll work I promise."

"Jeez, okay, who died and made you miss love advice giverer. Is she like paying you or something to do all this for her? If so I'd like to know how much because I'll pay you triple to do this for me instead."

"No she's not paying me. I'm trying to help my brother since I see he's in trouble."

"Ha, who are you and what did you do with Carly?"

"Shut up. Fine, well if that's not the big thing that's bothering you, then what is? And Don't give me any stupid answer or I'll hit you again."

"Okay, besides school, and besides her, the thing that brought me down here, don't laugh is this crazy dream I had."

Carly looked at Troy with a face of disbelief and tried to hide her laughter but eventually burst out into a laughing fit. "Ha ha you're kidding right?" She said as she wiped her eyes to rid the tears from laughing so hard. "Aw you poor baby, did someone have a bad dream?"

"Hey shut up, it wasn't a bad dream, it was just weird, that's all."

"Well, there's your culprit right there," Carly told his as she pointed to his empty glass and crumb-ridden tray.

"Yeah, my dream was your ugly face. That was the whole dream. Imagine being stuck in there," Troy replied sarcastically.

"Well actually I'd love to be stuck in a dream all about me personally. But fine, what was it really about?"

"Okay I was in this temple thingy, and I had a sword, it was a cool sword. Anyway, and I went through hallways, into this big room and I grabbed this thing. There were 2 more like them. Then some person in a hood came and started attacking me, but I woke up before it ended. It seemed all too real though. And I kinda fell out of my bed apparently. Then I came down here, and then you came down here and then, now this."

Carly looked at him with a blank stare. "Wow, yeah, definitely no more pizza for you."

"Actually I blamed it on the Mountain Dew," Troy interrupted.

"Okay no soda in general then. Well that explains what then thud was that woke me up. Idiot, thanks again for waking me. Well as weird as it was, and not matter what you think, it was a dream, they do feel real at times, but they aren't. Gosh you're so weird sometimes; I can't believe you and me are related sometimes."

"Yeah me neither, meet my sister the freak."

"Yeah real mature," She said sarcastically as she pushed him. Troy grabbed a pillow from the couch and hit her with it in retaliation. Carly grabbed the pillow on the other side and hit Troy. After knocking each other senseless a few times they both felt better about everything.

"Hey, I'm gonna go try and get a little more sleep before we're supposed to really get up, you should probably do the same." Carly said as she got up and headed towards the stairs.

"Yeah you're right, I probably should. I'll go up after putting the dishes away."

"Okay, good night see ya in a couple hours,"

"Okay night," Troy said as the walked away. "Hey Carly,"

"Yeah?" She said stopping on the stairs.

"Thanks, you made me feel a lot better, and for the advice too."

"Well we're even. You've done the same for me when I needed it."

"Yeah true, thanks anyways, night." He said as the walked away. Troy went into the kitchen and threw his glass and plate into the sink. "I guess it was just a dream," He said as he walked away back upstairs to his room. He picked up his blanket and pillow and threw them back on his bed. He set his phone on his table and lay in his bed. But he still couldn't sleep. He was still too busy thinking about that dream. "Who was that person? Where was I? What was that object? Why did it seem so real? Will I ever know the answers?" Troy stared at the ceiling as if hoping the ceiling tiles could provide him with guidance.

When the silence of the tiles set in Troy tossed and turned and ended up on his side staring out his bedroom window. Troy sat up and began to look out his window. He looked up at the stars gazing aimlessly at them hoping they could show him some direction. The twinkle of the stars was mesmerizing but no answers were to be found.

He then looked down closer to earth at the house next to his, the home of his two best friends Merideth and Courtney. All the lights were off, like any normal house at this time. "Well I guess I'm the only crazy one tonight." Troy said to himself sarcastically. "Hmm, who knows it's worth a try. She's done it to me, I'll do it to her," Troy said to his reflection in the mirror.

Troy rolled back across the bed and reached to his stand for his phone. He flipped it open, but stopped for a minute, blinded by the brightness of the screen in the dark room. After he could see again he scrolled through his phonebook until he came to Merideth's entry and selected the Send Message option. He typed up a simple message to her saying, You awake? He knew most likely she wasn't and that she wouldn't get that message for a few hours when she woke up. But he's been woken up by her random messages at odd hours when she couldn't sleep, so he decided that that'd make them even.

Troy watched the little envelope icon go in and out of the mailbox telling him his message was being sent. Once the envelope found its home in the mailbox, telling Troy it was successfully sent. Troy closed his phone up and set it back on his table.

He rolled back over to how he was before and pondered to the stars one last time hoping they would change their mind. After realizing they weren't going to, Troy closed his eyes and began to fall asleep.

A couple minutes later his phone rang, his loud ringer brought him out of the state of sleep he was almost in. He quickly rolled across the bed and grabbed his phone hoping it was Merideth. But when he looked at the screen all it showed was a picture of a clock. He opened his phone and looked at the time. The clock read 6:00 AM. Troy looked at it in disbelief. "Aw come on, I was just getting to sleep, argh, oh well," Troy gut cut of by a long yawn of his own. "Eh, I guess I better get ready." He said as he rubbed his eyes. He looked out his window towards Merideth's house. "I guess she's not awake." He said to himself.

Troy got a shower, put his clothes on, brushed his teeth, and made an attempt to brush his hair. He went downstairs to find his family sitting around in the kitchen. His mom was cooking a second set of eggs on the stove, his dad was sitting at the table enjoying his coffee and reading the paper. Carly was standing at the counter sipping a glass of Orange juice. Troy walked over to the fridge, poured himself a glass of orange juice and went over to the counter by Carly. "Are you as tired as I am?"

"Yeah, lets promise we're never gonna have a crazy brother-sister pillow fight at four in the morning again."

"Works for me. So did you ever get back to sleep?"

"Yeah, for about half an hour. You"

"Yeah, at about five fifty-eight." Carly stopped drinking her orange juice to think about what he said for a minute.

"Wait as in, you got two minutes of sleep?"

"Yeah pretty much,"

"Jeez, that's sucks." Carly said as she sipped more of her orange juice and glanced over to their other sister, Abby, who was sitting at the table scarfing down a mountain of scrambled eggs topped with loads of ketchup. "Look at herm she didn't lose a bit of sleep, she up and ready to go,"

"Yeah lucky her," Troy said unenthusiastically as he glanced over at his sister too. At that moment she looked up with a mouthful of eggs and managed a "What?" out of her stuffed mouth. Troy and Carly just looked down and shook their heads.

"Nothing, just go back to eating your eggs." Troy told her.

"What you want some?" Abby said with her mouth still full. "Cause mom's making more; they'll be done in a couple minutes."

"Nah, I'm fine, I'm not hungry." Troy replied which caused Carly to laugh, knowing that he had inhaled four pieces of cold pizza a couple hours ago. Which prompted an elbow belong to Troy to end up in her ribs.

"Okay, jeez, sorry." She told him. She turned to Abby, "That's okay; I'm content with my orange juice."

"Okay, more for me then," she replied before eating another forkful of eggs.

Troy finished drinking his orange juice and put his glass in the sink. "I'm gonna go watch some TV, call me when we're leaving." he told his sisters.

"Sure," they both replied as he walked away. After he was out of the room Abby put down her fork on her finished plate. "What's up with him?" She asked her sister.

"I don't know," Carly said, even though she did know. "It's Troy, what do you expect?"

"True," Abby replied. She looked at her phone; it read 6:45 AM. "Well time to go, let's get our stuff and grab Troy.

"Okay, hold on," Abby said,

"Why?" Carly asked before Abby grabbed her stuff, grabbed her fork from her eggs and grabbed a bite from the fresh batch of eggs.

"Okay, let's go," Abby replied after gulping down the eggs. Carly shook her head in disbelief.

"Do you have an end to your stomach?"

"Nope! C'mon, let's go."

Carly and Abby walked into the living room where Troy was sitting watching sportscenter reruns he had already seen.

"Come on, let's go." Carly said as she headed to turn the TV off.

"Fine, let me just see what the weather's like," Troy replied.

"I'm guessing cloudy, seventy-five percent chance of rain, high of sixty-seven." Abby said sarcastically. Troy turned to the local weather channel.

"Cloudy, seventy-five percent chance of rain, high of sixty-seven, wow," Carly read on the screen. Amazed, she looked at her sister, "You cheated,"

"Did not," She replied,

"Use dad's newspaper?" Troy asked.

"Yeah," Abby replied.

"Then why didn't you just tell us you read it in the newspaper?" Troy asked.

"That's not as fun," Abby replied with a smirk on your face.

"Come on you two; let's go before we're late." Carly said as she walked towards the door. Troy got up and followed and before reaching the door turned and softly said, "Weirdo," to Abby. Abby stuck her tongue out at him and made a funny face, ending the discussion.

When they finally got to school, Abby and Carly ran off with a few of their friends. Troy noticed Merideth standing by the stairs in front of the school and went to go talk to her.

"Hey what's up?" He said nonchalantly.

"Not much, hey, sorry about not replying to your message. I kinda got so busy packing I kinda forgot." She replied.

"It's okay. Packing for what?"

"Um, our field trip today."

"Cookie say what? Field trip?"

"You know, the trip that's today, to the ancient temples, we've been studying about them for 2 months now. You always talk about how you can't wait for the trip so you can find some treasure or something, and I would always say, Troy that would never happen, and then call you a freak or a dork or a crack head or something."

"You call me a freak or a dork or a crack head all the time."

"Yeah, true, but you know, that trip,"

Troy thought for a minute and then he remembered, "Oh yeah that trip! Uh-oh, oh crap!"

"What? What's the problem? Hey, Troy, where's the stuff you packed?"

"Um, see there's a funny story about that."

"Please tell me you packed Troy. Please, we have to spend three days there." She said as she put her hands on his shoulders and shook him, "Three days!" Troy bit his lip and looked around for a distraction, but none were appearing.

"You didn't pack did you?"

"Nope,"

"Gosh Troy, you're such an idiot, how'd I know this was gonna happen? You're lucky I'm here."

"And why is that? So I have someone to constantly torture me and call me names? Because you know you don't have to take that job, my sisters do a nice job of doing that. Which by the way, remind me to kill them later for not reminding me."

"Aw, me? Call you names? Psh, you must be mistaking me with someone else because I'm such a perfect little angel," Merideth replied trying as hard as she can not to laugh. Troy rolled his eyes in response.

"So why am I glad you're here then?" Merideth turned around and picked up a giant black duffle bag and handed it to Troy.

"To give you this." Troy looked inside the bad and found an assortment of his clothes.

"Where did you get these? I've been looking for some of these. I thought they were lost in my void of a room."

"A little birdie gave them to me."

"My sisters?"

"Yep,"

"Well why didn't they just give them to me themselves?"

"Duh Troy, that wouldn't be much fun would it?"

"So you were in on it?"

"Psh, of course,"

"You're all crazy, you know that? All of you, crazies."

"I know. We try."

"So how long has this been going on?"

"Oh a couple weeks, every now and then when we would go out and do something they'd go run a few clothes over to Courtney."

"So Courtney was in on it too?"

"Yeah, she thought it was hilarious. We hid everything in your room, it was my idea, but we couldn't hide it in my room incase you came over."

"Yeah true, whoa wait; this was all your idea?"

"Did I say that out loud? Oops my bad."

"So what would you have done in I had brought my clothes?"

"Umm well you would've had extra! Yep yeah well go with that."

"You had no idea did you?"

"Nope, we were all praying you'd forget."

"So this is what it's like to be on punk'd."

"Yep," Merideth pulled out her phone and held it to Troy and started her video recorder... "Come on say it, say it."

"Fine, I'm Troy Setters and I just got punk'd. There you happy? Didn't think I'd ever have to say that."

Merideth closed her phone and put it back in her purse. "Yep, wait til they see this."

"Wait til they see this," Troy said in a childish voice mocking her.

"Whatever, come on, grab your stuff, the buses are here." Merideth said as she grabbed her bag as a group of buses pulled up.

"Fine, I'm gonna get you back," Troy said as he grabbed his newly acquired bag.

"Is that a threat or a promise?" Merideth replied walking to the bus.

"Both," he replied as they got on the bus. "Oh, back seat!" he said as they ran to the back seat and threw their bags on the awning behind them.

After everyone had gotten on the bus and taken their seats, the buses pulled away from school, next stop, ancient temples. Shortly after they left, Merideth asked Troy, "Uh, where's everyone else like you know, our sisters?"

"Um, good question, our luck, on a different bus," Just then Merideth's phone rang, she had a message from Courtney, it read, "Where are you?"

Merideth replied, "On the first bus with Troy you?"

"On the third bus with Carly and Abby"

"Oh great Troy, they're on a different bus. We're screwed."

"Yep pretty much. So what are we gonna do for two hours?"

"I don't know," Merideth replied, looking around for some inspiration to provoke conversation. Then she found it.

"Gosh Troy, you're getting hurt more than me, how'd you get that huge bruise on your leg?"

"Bruise on my leg? What are you talking about?" Troy replied confused looking down to his leg. "There's no bruise."

"Uh Troy, other leg." Merideth said,

"Oh, I knew that,"

"Dork,"

"Yeah, whatever," Troy looked at his other leg. "Oh wow, that is a huge bruise. That explains why my leg hurt so much this morning."

"You didn't know it was there? When did you get it?"

"It must've been last night when I fell out of my bed. I must've kicked the bed post on the way down or something. I don't know I was asleep!"

"You fell out of bed. No seriously how did you get it?

"I'm serious, I fell out of bed."

"You fell out of bed?"

"Yep, and apparently I threw my pillow across the room too. I must have good aim in my sleep because I hit the dartboard and knocked it down. Found it lying next to the pillow when I woke up."

"Oh my gosh Troy, I'm surprised even on your standards. That's hilarious. How did you fall out of bed?"

"Well when I was in a sleep-induced state of unconsciousness. My subconscious told my central nervous system I was in trouble and sent a signal to my cerebral cortex telling my body to thrust it self in such a way that the projection would cause my descent to end with me gaining velocity and striking the floor consequently causing me to awake from my state and discover I was resting on the floor." Troy said, trying not to laugh as he said a bunch of stuff he didn't even know what it meant.

"Shut up," Merideth told him "You know I hate when you use big words."

"Yeah I know, well that's what you get for stealing my clothes."

"Ugh fine, crack head. So really, what happened?"

"Well, you're gonna think this is stupid, but I had this really weird dream last night, it seemed almost realistic.

"Oh my gosh I had one too. Except I was smart enough to stay in bed, gosh Troy. Well in mine I was in this really weird old temple thingy. And I was going through these passageways, oh and I had a sword, and then I jumped out of the ceiling and landed in this giant room with these two golden things sitting there. And there was some cloaked guy holding a third one, and I was about to fight him, and he asked me who are you, then I woke up. Oh well it was good for him cause I would've beat him anyways."

"You think you would've?"

"Yeah, I would've went BA BAM BA BAM on him and he would've been down,"

"Heh, alright, if you say so."

"So what was your dream about?"

Troy decided not to tell her since they were so awkwardly similar. So he made something up from the top of his head.

"Um, sky diving. Yeah, ended up jumping out of a plane and falling thirty thousand feet."

"So? What's so weird about that?"

"No parachute,"

"Well that I guess would explain how you fell out of bed, and you're supposed to be the smart one." She told him jokingly.

"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever. Well I didn't get back to sleep."

"So then you texted me?"

"Well there was stuff in between, but yeah"

"Well I watched some sportscenter, ate some cold pizza. Carly came down and-"

"And what?"

Troy decided not to tell Merideth about the details of their conversation. "She got mad at me for waking her up so I hit her with a pillow, and she hit me with a pillow, and then we got tired. She went to bed, I went to my room, stared at the ceiling, couldn't sleep, so I texted you. Unfortunately my alarm went off two minutes later."

"Oh, sounds um interesting."

"Yeah, not really, I decided, you text me at the randomest times all the time so I'm gonna text you. Now we're even."

"What nu-uh."

"Why bother, I'm not gonna argue, I never win."

"Exactly!"

"Well since I only got like four hours of sleep, you mind if I get some sleep on here?"

"Well what am I gonna do then?"

"I don't know, draw me a pretty picture, look out the window, get some sleep, you'll think of something."

"Fine. I'll figure out something to do I guess." She said as she pulled her ipod out of her pocket and turned it on.

"Thanks, wake me up when we get there."

"Okay maybe." Troy gave her an evil glare.

"I'm kidding, I'll wake you up."

Troy plugged his headphones into his phone and began listening to music. Just as he was falling asleep it beeped, signaling he has a message. He looked at his phone, it was from Carly. "I don't know where you are, but remember our little talk last night."

Troy, half-asleep, typed up a shaky response. "I will im geuting around to it. Ill do it eventually I promise. Im too thremd right now im gohng to skeep ill do it later. You shoukd sledp too."

After the misspelled response, Troy fell asleep finally. Merideth decided to draw a picture of trees and birds and any other random things she saw out the window, including a stop sign.

A couple hours later….

"Troy Troy Troy, wake up, we're here." Merideth said as she pushed him, trying to wake him up.

"What? What? Okay I'm up."

"And you didn't fall out of your seat congratulations!"

"Thanks, so we're here?"

"Yep, come on; let's go, we have to get assigned our cabin,"

"Cabin, we're in cabins?"

"Yeah we're you not paying attention at all?" Troy gave her his "duh" look.

"Yeah, true."She replied.

They got off the bus and headed over to their teacher, Mr. Romsey, who was assigning cabins.

"Let's see, Troy and Merideth," He said as he scribbled down a number on a piece of paper on his clipboard. "Cabin 17, off you go,"

"Whoa you're putting us in the same cabin but-"Troy started to say before Merideth interrupted him.

"What he means is thanks for putting us together, we're happy." As they walked off to their cabin, Merideth asked Troy, "What was that all about?"

"Oh nothing I was just saying their suppose to usually separate boys and girls, I mean think about our school and the people in it."

"Oh ew, nasty."

"Exactly. I mean I'm not complaining, I'm just surprised."

"Oh, okay, just making sure."

"Yeah, I'm sorry, from now on, open mouth, insert foot."

"Yep, good boy."

When they finally got to their cabin they noticed how huge it was. The cabin was a luxury house. Complete with all essentials, refrigerator, TV, games, the works. When Troy walked he looked around and remarked, "Um this isn't a cabin, it's more like a vacation home."

"I know, it's huge," Merideth replied. "Well let's go see who else were stuck with."

"Heh, we get the one hidden in the woods of course."

"Hmm, yeah, these woods look familiar, I just don't know from where,"

"And you say I'm crazy, come on, quit staring at trees and come inside," Troy told her laughing at her. But when he stopped for a second to look at them, he realized they were oddly familiar, but he couldn't figure out where they were from either.

When they walked into the living room they were met with a pleasant surprise. Troy's and Merideth's sisters were sitting on the couch laughing at the video of Troy Merideth sent them while he was asleep. Troy's friends, Ben and Keeton, were over playing Guitar Hero against each other.

Ben and Keeton paused their game to see who had gotten there.

"Hey Troy, what's up man? So you in here with us?" Ben asked

"Yep, I'm stuck with you guys," Troy said kiddingly,

"Hah sweet, now we got all three setters here, the party can begin now!" Keeton said, heading to the kitchen to raid the fridge.

"Courtney and Abby ran over and gave Merideth a hug, glad to see their best friend was gonna be their. "Oh my gosh we thought we were gonna be stuck with these two idiots," Courtney said, referring to Ben and Keeton.

"Ha yeah, unfortunately now we got three idiots," Pointing to Troy while saying this.

"Yep, that's true," Merideth added.

"Hey, I heard that!" Troy shouted to them from across the room. In the meantime Carly was lying on the couch, with her phone beside her. She shot a look to Troy, then over to Merideth, then back to Troy. Troy just shook his head and Carly rolled her eyes. She got up and walked over to the rest of the group.

"Yep, three idiots now, I like the video Merideth. This was some of your finer work."

"Yeah well I couldn't have done it without your help, so lets say this is a victory for all of us. Well all of us except Troy." Merideth responded, causing everyone to laugh.

"Okay, enough small talk, let's get this party started!" Keeton said as he set a bunch of drinks on the table and Ben dropped an armful of bags of chips.

"Hey Ben, "Troy asked,

"Yeah what?"

"These are supposed to hold 8 people; there are 7 of us, who's the 8th?

"Oh, it's my cousin Mallory, she had like some doctor's appointment or something so she won't get here until tomorrow."

"Oh fun,"

"Yeah I know, hey, you don't have to be related to her though."

"True,"

The seven of them spent the rest of their night partying and having fun. Then when ten o'clock rolled around everyone had to go to bed. Troy, Ben and Keeton headed off to their half, while Merideth, Courtney, Carly and Abby, headed to the opposite.

Troy laid in his bed unable to sleep, wondering if he would have another odd dream.

"Ugh, I can't sleep, and there's no pizza to eat and no windows to look out. Hmm, its nice out why look out the window when I can be out there anyway? Maybe a breath of fresh air with help me relax," Troy grabbed his jacket and slowly moved outside, just like last night, careful not to wake anyone. "This better not become a habit," Troy whispered to himself as he opened the door. "Because Carly probably already wants to kill me, this would just make it worse." He whispered as he closed the door and stepped out onto the porch. He looked out to the horizon overlooking the woods, which brought him a pleasant surprise. Merideth was standing outside too staring at the woods.

"Can't sleep?" Troy asked as he walked over to join her. Merideth turned around, already knowing who was talking to her.

"Oh hey Troy, nope, psh when have I ever been able to sleep like a normal person?"

"Good question, probably like before we met."

"Which was a long, long time ago."

"Yeah true, you're right. So what are you doing out here?"

"I don't know, staring at the trees, looking at the stars. It's just, for some reason, this place seems familiar, but I know I've never been here before."

"I know, it's a pain," Troy mumbled to himself.

"Huh what? Are you talking to yourself again?"

"Yeah of course, don't I always,"

"Yeah because you have no friends, so you have to," Merideth said pushing him in the shoulder.

"Uh huh, sure I don't. I'm just that depressed. Gosh I thought you were my friend. I think I might go cut myself now, make the pain go away." Troy replied as he jokingly began to pretend to put his head in his hands and cry. Merideth walked over to him,

"Listen Troy, I have some advice for you."

"What, how to get friends?" He said still playing along.

"Nope, just remember, down the alley not across the lane, that way you don't break the tendons."

Troy took his head out of his hands and looked at her, and started cracking up laughing, Merideth did the same. After they both were done laughing so hard their sides hurt. Merideth asked Troy, "So really what did you say?"

"Um, I said, um, it's supposed to rain," Troy said thinking quickly on his feet.

"Yeah right, it's a beautiful night, it's not gonna rain."

"Try telling that to Abby,"

"Why?"

"She stole my dad's newspaper just to see the weather. It said it was gonna rain."

"Well, um, can you believe everything you read? Nope, that's what I thought. I'm telling you Troy, it's not gonna rain," She said as she looked up into the star-filled night sky. "It's a wonderful night out, I mean look at the sky, its' great out, isn't it Troy?"

"Yeah it is pretty cool," he said looking at the stars. "Maybe it's not gonna rain, "

"Well duh, how could it rain on such a great night like this?"

"I don't know, I guess it couldn't. Well at least I'm not the only one who can't sleep. "

"Yeah I know, this would've been a lot boring out here if you hadn't come out. Now I've got someone to cure my boredom."

"Yeah, I know its pretty great. So now what do we do?"

"I don't know, um just start talking about something, anything,"

Troy thought for a moment for a topic before one came to him with the greatest ease. "Hey Merideth, I-"just then a raindrop fell.

"You're kidding its actually raining," Merideth complained as the drops started to fall at a heavier rate.

"We should probably go inside," Troy suggested as the rain began to pour even harder.

"Okay fine," She said as they started walking back to their cabin. "B the way, what were you gonna say,"

"Oh I'll just tell you when we get inside out of the rain, "Troy said. As he put the hood to his jacket up. Just then lightning stuck a tree and set it on fire causing it to spread to other trees so fast even the rain couldn't put it out. Then the emergency alarms rang, everybody needed to evacuate their cabins and get on the buses to head for safety. Everyone ran out of their cabins.

"Troy! We've gotta go!" Carly shouted to Troy over the roar of the thunder. Troy turned to Merideth, and told her "c'mon let's go," but Merideth stood motionless, staring at the fire. "Merideth, come on, what are you-. Oh my gosh. Merideth, I completely forgot, I'm sorry. You're parent's they were killed in that huge fire, you always have hated fire since then."

"Troy come on we have to leave!" Abby shouted

"Go on I'll be there in a minute!" Troy shouted back.

"Fine, I'll see you on the bus!" She shouted back as she took off with the rest of their group.

"Merideth, look, I know you're scared, but I promise, everything's gonna be okay. You're gonna be alright, nothing bad can or will happen. This is your great night remember? Nothing bad can happen to you on your great night. I would never let anything happen to you. But please, we have to leave, it's not safe here." Merideth snapped out of her trance, and turned to Troy.

"Thank you," she told him, "I mean it, I really needed that, gosh thank you so much."

"It's fine, you're welcome, but that'll mean nothing if we don't get to those buses."

Meanwhile on the buses everyone was taking their seats when Courtney asked everyone, "Where's Troy and Merideth?"

Carly told her, "I don't know they were coming he said he'd be right behind us."

"Yeah," Abby added, "He was gonna come after he got Merideth to stop staring at the fire."

"Fire?" Courtney said in shock, "Oh my gosh, oh no, Merideth,"

"What? What's going on?" Abby asked,

"Nothing I'll be back in a minute." Courtney told them as she headed for the front of the bus. But before she could get out the door the teacher grabbed her and stopped her.

"Where do you think you're going it's unsafe out there?"

"Merideth and Troy are out there I have to go get them."

"By now, you'd never make it back before fires engulf the area,"

"No that's not true, I have to go get them," she said, struggling to get free.

"No you have to stay here on the bus"

"Well what about them, are you just going to leave them?"

"If they don't come soon, we well have two, we can't risk everyone's lives for two kids."

"No, that's not fair! I'm going to go get them!" Courtney said as she broke free from her jacket and ran out into the dark, rainy, night.

"Sir, we can't stay here much longer, we have to get out of here," The bus driver told the teacher.

"Fine they're not coming back, let's get out of here," He said as he threw Courtney's jacket out the closing doors. The buses started their engines and began to pull out.

Ben, Keeton, Carly and Abby looked at each other with confusion,

"Where's Troy, Merideth and Courtney?" Carly asked panicking.

"I don't know, what the heck's going on?" Ben replied, looking to see if they were up front.

"Please tell me they're on here, please," Abby was begging,

"Nope, they're not, Keeton" told her, "maybe they just got on another bus, that's all,"

"Yeah, they're on another bus, safe and sound," Ben told them. None of them believed it, but it was all they could do. They sat in their seats at watched outside, hoping their friends were okay.

Back at the cabin area. Troy and Merideth were heading towards the parking lot, when they saw Merideth's sister running toward them. They stopped when she met up with them.

"Oh my gosh you two, come on we have to get going the buses are about to leave, we have to go come on." Courtney pleaded.

"We know, we know, we're going, come on," Troy told her as they ran toward the parking lot.

"I'm sorry," Merideth, told Courtney, "It's all my fault,"

"It's okay, don't be, I kinda figured out what happened, put two and two together,"

"Okay," Merideth told her as they reached the packing lot.

"Oh no," Troy said, "They left without us,"

"Hey, what's this?" Merideth asked as she held up a soaked jacket.

"That's my jacket! I can't believe he just threw it out of the bus like that." Courtney told them, glad to have her jacket back.

"Wait who did that?" Troy asked.

"The teacher of course, I hate him I really do." Courtney told them, " I tried to get off the bus to get you two and he grabbed me and wouldn't let me go, so I pulled out of my jacket and ran off."

"Aw, you did that? Thanks" Merideth told her sister.

"Yeah I love the touchy feely moment and all, but I can't help but notice, we're stuck her with no buses!" Troy told them, getting a little frustrated.

"Yeah, I know what do we do now?" Courtney asked,

"I don't know," Merideth said, realizing how bad the situation was.

Troy turned around and looked them in the eyes, bangs dangling over his, with the rain pouring down and told them,

"Try to survive, that's all we can do…"


	3. Unleashed!

_Okay, so chapter 2. This helps clear up alot of questions about chapter one, introduces another promient figure of the cast and finally cracks out some Shen Gong Wu._

* * *

"What do we do? What do we do?" Merideth panicked, looking around trying to find a solution.

"I don't know, that fire's coming quickly we can't stay here!" Courtney said.

"Well the ruins are only a mile or so away maybe we could hide there, or at least find some help," Troy suggested

"What, are you crazy?" Merideth asked him,

"You have any better ideas? We can't stay here. The fire will destroy these." Troy said looking at the fire slowly advancing toward their cabins.

"Okay, you're right, well how do we get there?" Courtney asked.

"Um, I'm not sure, I'm almost positive they're that way," He said pointing towards the woods that he and Merideth were eying before.

"Are you sure?" Courtney asked.

"Actually I think he's right, I've always thought there was something about those woods, I think this is why, they're the path to the ruins, I say we go." Merideth suggested.

"Okay," Troy and Courtney firmly agreed.

Troy, Merideth and Courtney ran off towards the woods. They entered and every thing became black. The light from the moon and stars was blocked off by the brush from the trees.

Troy looked up to the top of the trees.

"So much for our magical night," Troy remarked sarcastically to Merideth,

"Yeah I know, hey, what were you gonna tell me before?" Merideth asked him.

"Oh, um, it's gonna sound weird but I kinda sorta-" Troy began before getting interrupted.

"Hello, big fire, quit standing around! Let's go!" Courtney shouted to Troy and Merideth.

"Ugh, sorry, she's right though, come on, let's go, tell me when we get to the temple." Merideth told him and she ran to catch up with Courtney.

"Come on! I've waited so long to tell her and I finally get my chance and it's screwed up by a fire! Come on! That's not fair! Give me a chance, come on! Let something good happen to me for once!" He shouted to the trees. He then ran off to catch up with the girls.

The temple was only a mile away but through the rain and woods a mile seemed like eternity. They had to crawl under vines, jump over trees, the works. The rain was slowing them down constantly. There was nothing they could do about it but move on.

Then Troy tried to duck under a branch but didn't duck enough. He got his jacket caught on the branch. It had punctured a clean hole through the sleeve. Troy was forced to stop. When they noticed he wasn't running with them, Merideth and Courtney came back.

"What's wrong why did you stop?" Courtney asked?"

"My jacket's caught on the tree," Troy told them.

"Well can't you just take it off?"

"Um, hello, favorite lucky jacket, I'm not leaving it here."

"Come on, my jacket probably got ruined but I'm not complaining,"

"Yeah but that wasn't your favorite lucky jacket was it?"

"No, but,"

"Yeah, that's what I thought,"

"Troy just rip the sleeve off then. I promise I'll sew it back on for you some other time," Merideth pleaded with him,

"Haha yeah right, no." Troy told her.

"Please, don't you want us to be safe? You're slowing us down. Please, do it for me," Merideth pleaded with him. Troy thought it over a second,

"Oh fine, for you I will," He told her as there was a loud rip of the threads of Troy's right sleeve snapping. Troy grabbed the sleeve and looked at it for a minute. "Ugh, sorry lucky jacket." He told his jacket. "Hmm, might as well make it even," Troy said before ripping the other sleeve off as well.

"Why do boys always do that?" Merideth asked Troy,

"Do what?"

"Might as well make it even," She said mocking him. "Anytime something happens to a sleeve, they always rip the other one off."

"Um, because we can. Think about it, do you really wanna go around wearing one sleeve? That's like you going around with one shoe and one flip-flop."

"Ew, I'd never do that, that'd be weird," Merideth told him.

"See, exactly my point,"

"But you're a weirdo; you should enjoy things like that." Merideth said jokingly. Troy shook his head,

"Whatever,"

"Well for the record, I'm not sewing that sleeve back too; you're on your own there."

"Aw, fine. I don't know it kinda looks cool." Troy said looking at his arms, rubbing them where the sleeves would've been. "It's kinda like one of those mysterious cloaks the heroes always have in movies. You know what I'm talking about right?

"Uh not really," Merideth told him.

"Come on, haven't you ever seen Star Wars?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Remember the cloak that Obi-Wan had in episode one, ooh, or the one Anakin had when he was fighting Obi-Wan in episode 3?"

"Oh no, here we go," Merideth said,

"What? I mean that was like the best fight scene is history. Partly because we already knew who won just not how he won. I mean Anakin was so stupid. Obi-Wan told him not to jump, but he did. Then he did that wicked crescent slash thing with his lightsaber." Troy said as he spun his hands around replicating the famous slash. "And Anakin was lying on the ground on fire, with an arm and two legs chopped off. And Obi-Wan was like,

'You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! It was you who would bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!' And then Anakin looked at him with those evil red eyes in all the pain in the world and just screams, 'I HATE YOU' I mean you could feel his rage, and the passion in the way he said it, it was brilliant, and then Obi-Wan was like 'You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!' It was the best scene ever in any movie. I mean, I still get a little teary eyed when I watch that scene. Just sheer cinematic brilliance. George Lucas should've won an Oscar for that."

""You done?" Merideth asked, bored.

"Oh, yeah, sorry, had to go on my Star Wars rant." Troy told her, "but come on, you have to admit, this looks pretty cool." He said as he flipped his hood up and slashed at a tree with his invisible sword made of air.

"Oh jeez, yeah sure,"

"Um hey, guys, we've been standing here for like five minutes. We should probably get going." Courtney reminded them.

"Yeah, you're right," Troy said, "Come on, off we go young padowans." Troy told them as he ran off like a Jedi deeper into the woods.

"Gosh, he's having too much fun with that," Merideth said to Courtney as she laughed watching Troy think he was a Jedi.

"Well at least he's trying to find something good in a bad situation. He's always good at that."

"Yeah he is pretty good at that. Gosh with out him doing that, I'd probably be panicked and devastated by now." Merideth said,

"How do you do that?" Courtney asked,

"Do what?"

"You've got Troy wrapped around your finger."

"No he's not."

"Oh come on, look at the big picture for a minute. I begged and pleaded with him to fix the jacket, all you had to do was say please and it was off in an instant. He does anything you ask,"

"Nuh uh"

"Yeah, well who's always, 'Troy can you help me with my homework?' and who always drops whatever he's doing and helps you with it?"

"Oh please I mean, we're really good friends, so what, that doesn't mean he's wrapped around my finger,"

"Just think about it, you've known each other for forever, he's always there to help you, any time you get all sad he's always there to comfort you. Think about it."

"So what, that just shows that he cares about me a lot,"

"Uh huh sure, if you ask me, I think he likes you,"

"No, he doesn't like me you've got to be joking,"

"Well I mean, just look at it, it's got all the signs. Believe what you want, but I think he does,"

"Troy's my best friend, I'm pretty sure he doesn't like me,"

"Escape the fire we must! Come on!" Troy shouted back to them in his best Yoda impression.

"He's right come on let's go," Merideth told Courtney as she ran to catch up with Troy.

"Oh fine, I can never get a word in," Courtney said as she shook her head and ran to catch up to her friends.

"My my, your midi- chlorian count is rising with this slacking," Troy said, still in his best Yoda impression.

"Haha very funny, now quit Troy," Merideth told him.

"You do not want me to quit," Troy said as he waved his hand across Merideth's face, pretending to use a Jedi mind trick.

"Uh huh, sorry nice try, Jedi mind tricks don't work on me."

"Yes they do," He said as he tried again, "Now go get me a cheeseburger,"

"Where would I get a cheeseburger, we're in the middle of the woods? Huh, answer that."

"Oh fine, you win," Troy said, dropping the impression and returning to himself.

"Well duh, I always win, now come on let's go," Merideth told him as the three of them trekked deeper into the woods. After a while Courtney started to complain,

"It's so wet and yucky down here, how long have we been walking through here, are you sure you know which way you're going?"

"Yes, I'm positive I know which way were going," Merideth told her, as she pulled out her phone, "and its, crap," she said as she dropped her phone, which took a couple bounces towards a nearby bush. Merideth walked over and picked up the phone. "Okay, it's alright, now um, it's 3:40. wow, we've been out here a while. No wonder I'm kinda sleepy," she told them, but Troy and Courtney weren't paying attention, they were too busy looking at the rock behind her that was obscured by the bushes until she moved them.

"What, hello? Are you listening?" She asked them. They both shook their heads and pointed at the rock. "What are you two talking about?" She said as she turned around to see what they were staring at. "Oh my gosh, that's creepy where'd those come from?" She turned to see a giant rock with three swords stuck pint first down into the rock. "Okay, that was not there when I dropped my phone, what's going on?"

"I have no clue," Courtney said,

"Whoa those are cool," Troy said,

"How are those cool, they're worthless, they're stuck in a rock?" Merideth asked him,

"I don't know, maybe this is one of those scenarios where you have to be the chosen one to be able to pull the sword out," Troy fantasized,

"If you go off quoting Lord of the Rings or some other stupid movie, I swear I'm gonna pull one of those swords out, and you're gonna be dead," Merideth threatened him.

"Okay okay, chill I wasn't going to, I'm just saying it'd be cool,"

"Okay, good,"

"Besides, its not like you're a chosen one or anything, I doubt you could pull one out,"

"Yeah well I bet you can't do any better,"

"Oh yeah well watch me, "Troy said as he moved towards the swords.

"Um guys, do you think we should really be grabbing them, I mean who knows where they've been, why there here or what would happen if we did grab them?" Courtney asked,

"I don't care, I've always wanted to do this," Troy told Courtney,

"You've always wanted to pull a sword out of a stone? You are definitely a freak," Merideth told him,

"Well, sorta, it's more, I've just always wanted to prove you wrong" he told her with a smirk on his face,

"Well we'll just see about that, go ahead, try to pull it out, I dare you prove me wrong, pull it out,"

Troy wrapped his hand around the hilt of the sword, "fine I'll pull it out, okay, you mean like this?" He said before giving a tug on the sword. The sword slid out of the stone with no resistance. All three of them looked at each other awestruck.

"Okay, I didn't actually expect that to work," Troy said, staring in disbelief at the sword in his hand, with a golden hilt, a flawless white blade tipped by a golden point.

"Oh wow, how did that happen?" Merideth said in disbelief.

"I don't know, I just know, I was right and you were wrong! Ha!" Troy told her, bragging it in her face,

"Grr," Merideth said frustrated, she grabbed a sword pulled it flawlessly from the rock, and swung it at Troy. Quick thinking Troy ducked and raised his sword up to block the swipe.

"Whoa hey hey hey, let's play nice come on, no need for violence." Troy told her.

"Did I just pull a sword from a stone?" Merideth asked looking at her sword.

"Actually, I think you did," Courtney told her,

"Ha yeah and almost took my head off along with it," Troy said

"Shut up, or I won't miss next time," Merideth told him,

"Okay okay fine, but one question. There's still one sword left." Troy and Merideth both looked at their swords then looked at the sword remaining, then looked at Courtney and smiled.

"No, nuh-uh no way am I pulling that sword out of there," She told them,

"Well tough, because we're not leaving until you do," Merideth told her,

"That's stupid," Courtney fought back,

"Yeah, but it's even stupider that you won't pull the sword out, come on, you shouldn't even be here, you were on the bus, you could've been safe, you got off the bus for a reason. It was destiny that you came here, you were meant to get that sword, unlike your sister who got lucky." Troy told her.

Courtney laughed at that, as Merideth got frustrated, "Yeah yeah whatever, so come on pull it out already," She told her sister.

"Come on, who knows, the fate o humanity, or at least us getting through the night might depend on if you pull that sword out or not." Troy told her.

"Alright okay, I'll grab the stupid sword; will you two be happy now?" Courtney told them.

"Actually I still want a cheeseburger, but the sword will do," Troy told her.

"Fine, whatever," Courtney said as she grabbed the sword and pulled it from its resting place. Just like the other two, it slid right out of place.

"Oh my gosh, that actually worked! This is so cool, I got a sword!" Courtney said excitedly.

"Okay now that our little chosen one or whatever you want to call it moment is over, can we please continue, we should be getting close to the temple by now." Merideth told them.

"Yeah come on, let's go," Troy said,

"I wonder what happened to the campsite," Courtney thought out loud. Everyone paused for a second to think about it.

"I don't know, I wonder if everything burnt down or what," Troy said,

"I bet everyone else is warm and cozy in a hotel or something," Merideth said,

"Who knows, maybe they're doing just as bad, maybe they're being forced to sleep on the cold crowded bus," Troy suggested,

"At least they get to sleep," Courtney pointed out.

"True, Troy you're so calm aren't you at least a little worried about your sisters?" Merideth questioned

"Nah, they know how to fend for themselves, it's one of those family traits," Troy said, hoping he was right,

"Oh you mean like your creepy eyes?" Merideth said, referring to Troy's eye's which were blue with an odd ring of green in them, exactly like his sisters' eyes.

"Hey, they're not creepy, just different, I think they're cool," Troy defended himself.

"Okay, whatever, still think they're weird."

"Fine, oh duh, I'm such an idiot!" Troy said out of nowhere,

"Why?" Courtney asked

"I'll just text Carly and see where they are,"

"Well why didn't you think of that before?" Merideth asked,

"Um, too busy being a Jedi," Troy said

"Gosh idiot," Merideth said as she slapped him across the back of his head,"

"Hey what was that for? That hurt,"

"For being stupid, and hey, it could've been my sword, now get texting."

"True, oh fine," Troy said as he dug in his pocket for his phone. He typed a message to his sister that read, "Where are you?" after a couple seconds of waiting, a message appeared on his screen, "Server not responding. Message not sent. Please try again later."

"You're kidding I hate my piece of crap phone, its worthless, I might as well go set it on that rock and hack it in half with my sword, at least it'd cure my anger. When we get back to civilization the first thing I am doing is buying a new phone." Troy said, mad that his phone wouldn't work.

"Wow, chill I'll send it myself then." Merideth said as she typed up the same message in her phone, and sent it, she looked down at her phone with big eyes.

"What, where are they?" Courtney asked,

"I don't know," She said followed by a short silence, "I'm in roaming. The message won't send,"

"You've got to be kidding me, two phones down, one to go. Courtney, wanna give it a shot?" Troy asked her,

"Um, yeah see there's kinda a problem about that,"

"A problem, like what?"

"Well see, um" Courtney said fumbling for words,

"Courtney got her phone taken away," Merideth told Troy, "Mom wasn't too happy with a few of her grades and took it away,"

"Wow, great, we're screwed. We're stuck in the middle of the woods, with no technology whatsoever. We're gonna die," Troy said sarcastically.

"Well see um, maybe if we get going and quit stopping like this we'll reach the temples and maybe we'll find safety." Merideth explained to them.

"She's right, no more stopping til we get there," Troy said, "Go on Merideth, you know where we're going, lead the way,"

"Well thank you, now let's go."

After a couple more hours of navigating through underbrush and tress and other assorted wooded items, the three came to a fork in the woods.

"We should go to the right," Merideth said,

"You sure?" Troy said looking down the right path and seeing how hard it'd be to navigate it

"I've been right this whole time haven't I?"

"Can you prove you're right? How do we know you're not leading us the wrong way?"

"Um, I don't know,"

"Exactly, I mean look at that path, you know how hard it'd be to get through there. The left path is a lot easier. I mean it looks like they lead to the same place anyways."

"Well fine, me and Courtney will go to the right and you go to the left. Okay?"

"Yeah works for me," Troy said

"Okay I guess, but Troy, you better meet us at the temple." Courtney answered.

"Ha, you mean you two will meet me at the temple, you know I'm gonna beat you there,"

"Ha whatever, just go," Merideth said.

"Okay fine I will," Troy said as he ran off down his path. He stopped for a second, and turned them and said, "You take care of her,"

"Okay I will," They both said back,

Troy closed his eyes and shook his head and smiled before running off.

"He was talking to me," Courtney told her sister.

"Hmm yeah I don't think so, I can take care of myself, he was talking to me,"

"Nah, I don't think so, I think he was talking to me," Courtney said,

"Well whatever, why are we talking about this anyways? He's probably just pretending to be some hero again, running off into the distance; he had to say something dramatic. That's just Troy," Merideth said.

"Oh fine if you think so, well let's go down this path then." Courtney said.

"Yeah, let's go, we have to beat Troy there,"

"Of course," Courtney said as they both ran off down the right path.

Troy eventually reached the temple, and looked as its humongous size. "Wow, it looked so much smaller in the books," Troy said, "Hey, they're not here, I knew it, I won again!" Troy exclaimed, noticing he had beat Merideth and Courtney to the temple.

Then a bolt of lightning crossed through the sky, the rain had started again. He put up his hood to stop from getting wet. "They won't care if I wait inside for them?" Troy said to himself, "Well it's their fault they're late, so I'll be inside,"

Troy looked up at the dark sky, riddled with the occasional lightning bolt. "Yeah going in." He said as he ran up the crumbling steps to the temple.

When he got inside he realized it was even bigger than he thought. He took of his hood and shook his head in attempt to dry his hair. "Great, the second thing I'm doing when we get back to civilization is cutting my hair short," Troy looked around the temple and noticed the intricate designs. "Wow, if it wasn't storming and four in the morning, I might appreciate these designs more,"

Troy looked around a little more, "there's so little light, only these torches, oh well, that'll do I guess."

Troy got bored waiting for the two to come so he decided to investigate a little deeper into the temple. He took out his sword for protection and began to proceed down the hallway but stopped. "Whoa, déjà vu," Troy said looking down at his sword. "This is just like my dream, creepy." Troy then carefully started walking down the hallway on the look out for anything out of the ordinary.

As Troy proceeded down the hallway, Merideth and Courtney reached the other side of the temple. "Ha I knew it! We beat him!" Merideth told Courtney excitedly. "Yeah that's nice can we go inside and wait for him please?"

Merideth watched some lightning throughout the sky, "Yeah, let's go in,"

When they got in they came to two hallways, "What the heck, let's go explore, meet back here in fifteen minutes, Troy should be here by then." Merideth said.

"Okay, sure," Courtney said as she wondered off through a hallway. Merideth wandered down the other and came to a set of stairs.

"Hmm, I wonder where these lead to," She thought before walking up them to another hallway.

As she walked through the hallway, Troy entered the inner most sanctum. Troy regaled at the size of the chamber, and noticed three golden objects sitting in the middle. "Oddly enough I feel like I should take one of these, well that's what I remember from my dream." He creeped slowly towards the pedestal where the treasures sat and grabbed one and examined the delicate sword engraving in it.

"Hmm that's cool," He said to himself as he put the treasure in his pocket. "Now something else was supposed to happen when I did that," He said to himself.

Just then, Merideth triggered a trap in the hallway she was in and fell through a hole in the floor and landed in the inner sanctum across from Troy. Troy had put up his hood to protect his face from the dust that arose from the collapse. When the dust settled the two of them looked at each other, neither of them knew who the other was. Merideth saw the treasures and grabbed one for herself to examine it.

Both of them felt threatened by the other's presence. The both readied their swords for battle and slowly paced around the podium. After each returned to their starting spot Troy thought to himself, "Finally I can answer all of my questions, there's only one thing to do,"

"Who are you?" He asked his mysterious enemy.

Merideth was freaked by the whole situation, so she made up things to seem tougher.

"I am, your worst nightmare, my associates call me Merideth, but you can call me A, A for annihilation. I'm a hand-trained lethal assassin, I will not hesitate to kill you. Hand over the treasure and leave and I will spare you," She told the mysterious enemy who was Troy. But Troy had no idea it was Merideth making stuff up.

Troy thought for a minute, "You know, that sword looks just like mine, just like the ones Merideth and Courtney pulled out of the rock. And all that stuff sounds like something Merideth would make up. It's sounds a lot like her voice too. Could it really be Merideth?"

Troy didn't have time to think anymore because Merideth was charging right at him; he pressed himself against the wall to avoid the sword swing. Troy looked over and saw the torch and formulated a plan. As Merideth charged for a return swing, Troy grabbed the torch and held it in front of him. Merideth stopped mid attack and froze, dropping her sword. She was motionless, like a vampire who had just seen a cross. Troy approached Merideth and removed her hood.

"I knew it," He said out loud. Troy turned around and walked back to where he had taken the torch from. While his back was turned Merideth spoke to him, still trying to make things up to sound tough.

"Good now you will have the benefits of seeing my face as the last thing you see!" Merideth grabbed her sword from the ground and charged at Troy. Troy turned around and pulled down his hood, revealing his face. Merideth stopped at a dead halt when she saw who her "enemy" was.

"Troy oh my gosh, I'm sorry, wow, this is how my dream ended, oh, I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to hurt you, I just made all that stuff up to sound tough," Merideth pleaded to Troy.

"It's okay. I should be the one apologizing, I knew it was you, I took advantage of your fear of fire, I'm sorry." Troy told her.

"Nah, it's okay, I would've done the same thing to you."

"Well shows how much of a friend you are, jeez, thanks."

"Yep, that's me, I'm your bestest friend in the world and that's why I'd do something like that, only for your benefit."

"Ha okay, um look Merideth, there's something I should probably tell you,"

"Okay, what is it?"

"Um, see, I kinda sorta, had a dream just like this, except well from my point of view,"

"You mean just like I had that one dream,"

"Yep, this is the one I was gonna tell you about on the bus."

"Well why didn't you?"

"You'd think I'm crazy and not believe me,"

"Uh hello Troy, I already think you're crazy anyways, come on I would've believed you,"

"Really okay, well next time I have some extremely realistic dream, I'll tell you about it."

"Okay,"

"Hey wait,"

"What,"

"I'm not crazy!"

"Ha ok, just keep dreaming,"

"Ugh, don't talk about dreams, please; I've had enough of dreams,"

"True, my bad,"

"So that's what you were gonna tell me before?"

"Oh, um, no, that was something else,"

"Well what?"

"Well, see, um," Troy fumbled out before another interruption.

"Ooh treasure, cool," A mysterious voice said as they grabbed the third and final piece of treasure. Troy and Merideth turned around and readied their swords.

"Come on!" Troy said in disbelief,

"Here we go again," Merideth said, they both charged at this mysterious intruder.

"Whoa whoa wait, hold on, it's me guys, "Courtney said as she pulled down her hood. Troy and Merideth stopped short of her.

"Okay, new rule, no more hoods!" Troy announced.

"Heh yeah it's almost gotten us all killed," Merideth agreed.

"Well now that you're both here, I can tell you ha ha I got here first!" Troy said,

"Nu-uh, we did, it's just Courtney took a different path that I did when we got in," Merideth replied.

"But uh, there was only one path in the entrance,"

"No there were two,"

"Whoa, so this means there were 2 entrances then, cool!" Courtney added.

"Okay, now that we're all here, now what?" Merideth asked,

"I don't know, hey, you know, our three little treasure things look like they fit together. Let's see what happens," Troy said eager to see the results,

"Sure," Merideth and Courtney replied as they got out their treasures. The three of them stuck there treasures together and a there was a bright flash of light and a spirit appeared before them hovering over the treasure.

"Whoa evil creepy spirit!" Courtney screamed.

"Is this real?" Merideth asked,

"Who are you?" Troy asked.

"I am Zane, but that isn't important right now, you shouldn't have done this,"

"Done what?" Merideth asked

"Put these Shen Gong Wu together," Zane answered,

"Shen go what?" Merideth replied,

"Shen Gong Wu, or what you were calling treasures,"

"Oh, ok, well why not?"

"Two thousand years ago I fought an evil entity named Chase Young in an epic battle that would decide the fate of the world. Chase had been over powering me, the only thing I could do is use my power to lock us in these Shen Gong Wu. By reuniting the Shen Gong Wu, you have released Chase. He's probably already on foot back to his lair by now,"

"Um question, why are you a spirit then and Chase is a human?

"Because if I were a human Chase would be able to track me down and finish what he started two thousand years ago, but he can't track me if I'm a spirit, unfortunately I only had enough energy to turn one of us into a spirit. But when the Seal of the Xylos is formed,"

"Hold on, the seal of the what?" Merideth asked,

"The Seal of the Xylos, the Shen Gong Wu that summoned me."

"Oh, ok, continue then,"

"Thank you, now when the three pieces, the Crest of Shiaku, the Zarabi Emblem, and the Symbol of Drylien, which are the three wu you possess, come together, they form the Seal of the Xylos, which allows the chosen ones to unlock me and gain supreme powers, and with enough energy, possible allow me to achieve a temporary human form.

"So we're the chosen ones?" Troy asked. Zane nodded his head. "Ha I told you we were chosen ones!" Troy told Merideth, "I love being right."

"Okay, whatever, so is there some connection between you and the dreams we had?" Merideth asked Zane,

"Yes, I came through your dreams the other night to guide you here. Being the two thousandth anniversary of our fight, my seal was wearing off, the energy of the three pieces being so close to each other was weakening the seal. I needed people to get them, and move them away to rebuild the seal, not bring them closer."

"Oh, we're sorry, "Troy said,

"It's okay, this was bound to happen eventually. But now being the chosen ones, you have given your self an extremely dangerous important mission. Now, the rest of the Shen Gong Wu will slowly reveal themselves. Your mission is to retrieve all the Shen Gong Wu so Chase can't get them. :Luckily to make your job a little easier, there is still a partial seal on Chase, he cannot touch a Shen Gong Wu. The only way to break the seal is through contact fusion.

"Contact fusion?" Courtney asked,

"It's when a Shen Gong Wu literally fuses with your body. If you were to use the parts of the Seal of the Xylos individually there is a chance you may automatically contact fuse with any Shen Gong Wu you use. As you become more skilled you're chances of this happening will lessen, and when it does you will be more skilled with how to turn this disadvantage into an advantage."

"Okay, what does that have to do with this Chase guy?" Merideth asked,

"The only way Chase can full fuse is with the Seal of the Xylos. So he will probably try to obtain it in a Xiaolin Showdown."

"A what?" Courtney asked,

"A Xiaolin showdown. It the ancient times, there were two sides, Xiaolin, they light, and Heylin, the dark. I am part of the Xiaolin side as is Chase to the Heylin."

"Okay, then what do you do in a showdown?"

"A showdown can only occur when two people grab a Shen Gong Wu simultaneously. One person declares what the challenge is. Each person is allowed to use one Shen Gong Wu to assist them in the challenge. Who ever wins the challenge gets the Wu they were fighting over along with any Wu that were used."

"So basically we're betting on our own abilities, sounds fun, I like betting," Troy said,

"Hey, that reminds me, you still owe me a candy bar from our bet," Merideth told Troy,

"Yeah yeah I know. So Zane, anything else we need to know?"

"Yes, anytime you use the Seal of Xylos in a showdown the rules change."

"Great more rules," Courtney said.

"It becomes a Heylin showdown. Each person is allowed to bring in more members as long as the sides end up equal. And each team may use multiple Shen Gong Wu, but in the end, the loser only gives up one Shen Gong Wu, and the loser picks which Wu to forfeit,"

"Wow, that's confusing," Merideth said,

"Sounds like fun," Troy said.

"Oh one more rule. The challenge for a Heylin Showdown is always the same, a fight to the death or until one team forfeits,"

"Uh to the death?" Courtney asked scared.

"Don't worry, you don't actually die. My power prevents that; you won't even have a scratch on you, no matter what happens. You will potentially be temporarily unconscious though."

"Okay, that's a little better I guess," Courtney replied.

"Now, the three of you are strong, but you can't take on Chase alone, especially because he will probably scout out apprentices to train and fight with him. I suggest we do the same. There are five elements, fire, water, wind, earth, and lightning. You must find an apprentice for each"

"Okay, well how do we do that?" Troy asked,

"In the vault back there," Zane said as he pointed to a small alcove hidden in the corner concealing a vault, "there are five Shen Gong Wu, one for all five elements, the Star Hanabi for fire, the Orb of Tornami for water, the Fist of Tebigong for earth, the Sword of the Storm for wind, and the Eye of Dashi for lightning. Find five apprentices who you feel are worthy enough to wield these powerful weapons to join you in the fight against the evil Heylin forces. I trust you will know when you find them."

"Okay," Merideth replied,

"Oh and Troy,"

"Yeah?" Troy answered,

"To make this simpler, you will get all the dreams telling you where and when a Shen Gong Wu will be activated. It's too much energy to send the same dream to all three of you. Merideth on occasions I might need to send the dream to you too."

"Oh great more sleepless nights. Just make sure I don't have a test the next day or something. Great that means I'll have to deal with waking up Carly." He said to everyone in general. Then he turned to Merideth, "You do realize that I'm gonna probably end up texting you whenever these random dreams happen, just to bug you,"

"Fine, I can deal with it," Merideth replied.

"I must go now, I'm losing energy, I wish you all good luck in your voyages, just activate the Seal of Xylos anytime you need me." Zane said, and with a flash, he was gone.

"Well that was interesting," Merideth said,

"Yeah, we better go get those Shen Gong Wu now," Troy said,

"Yeah," Courtney said. The three of them walked over and grabbed the Shen Gong Wu from the vault and began to exit. As they got to the exit Merideth told Troy,

"Oh wow, you were right, there were two entrances,"

"Yep, told you so, so do I win now?" He asked her,

"Nope, we can't prove who won, it's a tie."

"Aw come on. Oh well, it's better than a loss."

When they got outside they noticed the bright sun shining down.

"Wow, it stopped storming," Merideth said,

"Yeah and they managed to put out the fire, "Troy noticed,

"I wonder what happened to our class then," Courtney added

"Wow, you do realize it's morning now, we survived through the night, that's amazing," Merideth added, looking up to the bright sun.

"Um yeah we have bigger problems though," Troy said pointing his finger to a group of buses arriving,

"Hey that looks like our class, we're saved!" Courtney exclaimed.

"Yeah, uh but we've got handfuls of Shen Gong Wu, including a sword and a giant fist, how do we explain that," Troy asked,

"Or the fact that we're supposed to be dead?" Merideth added in sarcastically.

"Heh, yeah true, I forgot we don't exist," Troy answered.

"Well we can just sneak out through the entrance we took," Courtney said,

"Yeah that's actually a good idea," Troy said,

"Come on, let's go before anyone sees us." Merideth said. The three of them began to enter the temple, but before they could get in they heard a voice,

"Troy! Merideth! Courtney!"

* * *


	4. The New Legacy

_OKay, well um, no cheezy intro this time, so uh enjoy._

* * *

The three of them panicked, they'd been caught, but by who? They hid behind a nearby wall to the temple and freaked to each other.

"What do we do?" Courtney said trying not to be overheard,

"I don't know, I mean, we could sneak away and keep going like we never heard them, " Merideth suggested,

"But what if they follow us?"

"Oh um, I don't know."

"Well wait, we don't even know if it's someone bad," Troy suggested,

"Yeah, sure, who wouldn't be bad then, we're basically zombies who have risen from the dead with a bunch of treasure?" Merideth asked,

"Yeah I mean, it's a teacher, then we're screwed," Courtney reminded them,

"Or what if it's one of the many random kids we don't like, they'd want tot take our Wu, or at least ask us a million questions about them," Merideth suggested,

"Well we can make a better plan if we know who we're running from. I say we at least take a quick peek, that voice was pretty loud, they were pretty far away, by now they're probably close to the steps." Troy said,

"Oh ok, you're probably right," Courtney told him,

"Fine, but you're the one who's looking, not us," Merideth told him,

"Fine, I will then," Troy told them, "Here, hold the Wu, he said as he gave them the handfuls of Wu that he held. He then slowly creeped up to the edge of the wall and slowly creeped out to see who was coming. Then Bam! Before he could react Troy was on the ground.

"You're okay!" Abby screamed as she got up from tackling her brother. After a couple coughs to regain the air he lost from that tackle, Troy asked his sister,

"Where did you learn to tackle like that?"

"Um, I don't know, I guess I was just overexcited. I mean, you were supposed to be dead,"

"Ha yeah, not the first one to say that," Merideth said as she walked out to greet Troy's sister,

"Merideth! You're okay too! Ha oh yeah, I should probably tell you there was a rumor that quickly spread that you guys died in that fire after the teacher told Courtney you were dead, it spread like, um, wildfire."

That seemed like a perfect moment for Courtney to walk out and join in,

"Courtney! What were you thinking running off that bus?" Abby asked her,

"I had to go save them, I don't know, some sort of destiny thing I guess,"

"Okay, well you had us all worried about you when you went and played hero, oh and sorry about your jacket. I can't believe he just tossed it out of the bus instead of at lease holding on to it,"

"Yeah and he created a rumor that we're dead, don't forget that," Courtney added,

"And basically didn't care or even try to get us safely back," Merideth added,

"Basically he was just trying to save himself, we should sue him," Troy said. They all laughed at that but then began to realize they probably should.

"Ha how fun is it gonna be when he sees us?" Merideth suggested,

"Oh jeez, he'll probably be apologizing for forever to us and saying he didn't mean to and a bunch of other crap that we know isn't true." Courtney said

"Ha we should milk this for all it's worth, get every perk we can, do they allow zombies at school?" Troy added.

"Is that all you think about, the benefits?" Merideth asked Troy,

"Uh hello, stuck in the wilderness, no attempt to save us, we could've died, it was all like Man vs. Wild out there." Troy pleaded,

"Um what about all that destiny stuff?" Merideth reminded him,

"Um, well why couldn't destiny let us come to the temples in cozy buses and enter the temple and get the Wu then?" Troy asked,

"True, I guess," Merideth told him,

"Whoa whoa wait, I missed something," Abby interrupted, "What exactly happened while you were gone?"

"Well," Troy started to tell his sister, before getting an elbow in the ribs from Merideth,

"What was that for?"

"I need to talk to you, in private," She told him. Then turned to Abby, "We'll be right back," she told her before dragging Troy off by himself.

"Do you think it's a good idea to be telling everyone so quickly about this?" She asked him,

"Oh come on, it's my sister, she can keep a secret, besides who knows, maybe she's one of those apprentices we're looking for," Troy suggested

"Maybe, but I don't think we should tell anyone until we're sure,"

"Oh fine, I guess you're right,"

"Well duh, I'm always right,"

"Haha fine, whatever you say," Troy told her, "So what do we tell Abby?"

"Um, you're smart, think on your feet, just say the first thing that comes to your mind and go with it,"

"You sure about that?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well what if the first thing that comes to my mind is crazier then what actually happened?"

"Troy, we were sent to survive in the wilderness, found a bunch of ancient swords almost killed each other with them not once, but two or three times, snuck in to an ancient temple, found treasures called Shen Gong Wu, released a two thousand year old spirit, and his evil counterpart, and now are forced to find all the remaining Wu and find five apprentices and save the world. Does that sound pretty much like last night?"

"Yep, pretty much,"

"Okay well how can it get weirder than that?"

"Do you want me to answer that? Remember, its me, the king of crazy random things."

"Yeah sure, go ahead,"

"Well after we found those swords, we discovered that they were actually homing signals alerting an alien to come to earth, they beamed us up and took them back to their planet. Their planet was weird, everyone walked backwards and didn't wear pants, very scarring to any young person, then they took us to their lab to experiment on us and we were like, 'No! stay away from us,' and I grabbed my sword and hacked our way out of there kicking alien butt now and asking questions later. Then we hijacked one of their spaceships, flew back down to earth, crashed landed it in a remote location in North Dakota, as used the last bit of energy from it to use it's teleporter to teleport us to Florida for a vacation, but it only had enough juice to go halfway so we got stuck here."

"Wow," Merideth said, with a blank face, "Do really think of this stuff off the top of your head?"

"Yep, pretty much,"

"Crack head,"

"Hey, it provides good entertainment doesn't it?"

"So does a monkey,"

"Are you calling me a monkey?"

"No, that'd be an insult; monkeys have much better handwriting,"

"You're such a great friend, what would I do without you?" Troy told her sarcastically,

"Well, um, I don't know, die of boredom probably." She told him.

"Yeah, true, you're probably right. Although I'd get probably at least twice as much, if not more, sleep then I do,"

"Okay, yeah I guess you got a point there,"

"Sorry to interrupt your lovely stroll down memory lane, but we've got a crowd forming, you need to get back over here," Courtney told them,

"Okay okay fine and it wasn't a stroll, it was more like a, um, what was it Troy?" Merideth said,

"Umm more like a um, promenade,"

"A what?" They both said,

"Oh, crap sorry, slipped into French there for a minute," Troy apologized,

"Gosh loser," Merideth told him, "Well let's go make something up, we'll finish this talk later,"

Courtney led Troy and Merideth over to group that was forming. She made it sound as if it was larger than it really was. The group was only five people, Abby, her sister Carly, Ben and Keeton, and Ben's cousin Mallory who had just arrived. When Merideth and Troy rejoined the group everyone was shocked, they couldn't believe they were alive.

"Oh my gosh Troy!" Carly said as she ran up and hugged him,

"Um okay, awkward brother sister touchy feely moment," Troy said as he was hugged by his sister,

"Oh, sorry, I was just so worried about you three," Carly told him,

"Yeah, you should've seen her, she was breaking down in tears and everything," Abby told them

"Ha ha very funny," Carly snapped at her,

"Dude you're supposed to be dead," Ben told them,

"Okay, I'm really sick of the we're dead rumor. We're not dead! We're right here in the flesh," Merideth told them,

"We know, we're just amazed, you guys are like living legends now, just wait until word gets out through the school," Keeton told them. Troy, Merideth and Courtney looked at each other with dreadful faces knowing how much explaining they'd have to do.

"Rule one, we're not signing autographs," Troy told everyone. Merideth and Courtney nodded in agreement.

"Okay, um I wasn't here last night; apparently I missed something pretty good. So what happened?" Mallory asked,

"Um well there was a huge fire and we all had to leave," Courtney began to tell them,

"But someone was to afraid to leave," Courtney said, looking at Merideth,

"Hey," She shot at her sister,

"Chill, its fine, just let her get through the story and you can deal with it later okay?" Troy told her in an attempt to calm her down.

"Fine,"

"Well, anyways," Courtney began again, "So we all got on buses except for Troy and Merideth. I didn't realize it until we were about to leave. And the teacher wouldn't go get them, or even wait for them, so I ran off the bus, and he took my jacket from me and totally trashed it. And then we had to survive by ourselves until this morning," Courtney said,

"Wow," was all Mallory could get out, "You should totally sue him,"

"That's what I said and they said I was on crack!" Troy told her,

"Well, um, yeah too bad, she's right you're wrong," Merideth told him,

"We said the same thing," Troy told her,

"Nope, um, nope, she said totally sue him,"

"That's stupid; it's the same concept,"

"Nope cause totally makes all the difference it makes it seem more important,"

"Uh huh, sure it does, you're just saying I'm wrong because it's me aren't you,"

"Yup, pretty much,"

"I hate you, I can never win,"

"Well duh Troy, that's the rules of Merideth's game, we've been playing this for how long? You should know the rules by now. The first rule, I'm always right."

"Yeah, I hate that rule,"

"The second rule, you're always wrong,"

"I hate that rule too,"

"Third rule, I'm the coolest person ever,"

"Okay fine I can settle for that rule,"

"Well you better because uh, hello, rule number one?"

"Okay, fine you're the coolest person ever,"

"Thank you, last rule, I can change the rules when I please,"

"I don't like this rule either,"

"Well deal with it,"

"Are you two done?" Courtney asked,

Realizing they were arguing about their little 'game' in front of everyone instead of explaining what happened, Troy and Merideth felt a little embarrassed.

"Yeah, we're done," Merideth said,

"Continue," Troy told her.

"Gosh I swear I have never seen anyone fight as much as you two over pointless stuff," Courtney told them,

"Yeah well we enjoy it," Merideth told her,

"Yeah, it's actually quite fun," Troy said,

"Okay whatever crazies," Courtney told them, as they looked at each other and made goofy faces to each other.

"So how did you guys get here then?" Keeton asked,

"Um well," Merideth said as she looked at Troy hoping he could come up with an answer, "Well, we, um," She said stalling for time,

"We followed the bus," Troy said saving Merideth, she turned to him and mouthed an "thanks," to him, Troy nodded his head and continued,

"Well how come we didn't see you at the hotel we stayed at?" Carly asked,

"whoa wait, you guys stayed at a hotel?" Troy asked,

"Yeah it was a pretty nice hotel too, not as good as what we were staying in, but still I wasn't complaining," Ben told them,

"You're kidding, that sucks!" Troy told them, "Well um, we knew that we couldn't catch the bus, so we figured that you'd still come here tomorrow, so we headed towards the ruins,"

"Well how'd you get here then?" Abby asked,

"Found a shortcut through the woods, got lucky,"

"Wow, that's pretty cool," Keeton told them.

"So um, what were those things that you were holding before I came and tackled you?" Abby asked. Troy Merideth and Courtney panicked, their cover was blown. Troy looked at Merideth with a questioning look, as if practically saying, "can we tell them please?" and held up five fingers and pointed at the group, Merideth shrugged her shoulders and told Troy, "I guess,"

Troy nodded back in agreement and turned to reveal their hidden secret to them all,

"Okay can you keep a secret? You have to say yes or I'm not telling you," The group all nodded their heads and said, "Yeah,"

"Okay, well we went into the temple, and we found these treasures called Shen Gong Wu, and when we put a certain three of them together they summoned this spirit called Zane,"

"Okay, this is definitely weird," Abby said,

"Well it gets weirder. So he told us that this evil guy, Chase Young was set free from his two thousand year imprisonment, and he's trying to collect all the Shen Gong Wu so he can rule the world."

"Uh huh, I'm lost already," Mallory said,

"Don't worry, it'll get simpler, but anyways, since we can't beat him alone, he gave us five more Shen Gong Wu and told us to use them to gain apprentices as he called them, basically just teammates,"

"Okay, I think I see where this is going then," Carly said with some excitement in her voice,

"Well we need five apprentices, and well, there's five of you, so what do you say? You wanna do it?"

"Yes!" Carly said almost instantly,

"Sure, sounds fun," Abby said,

"My parents said I need to get out more, I guess saving the world counts," Ben said,

"Hey, girls love heroes, so yeah sure," Keeton answered,

"Um, sure I guess," Mallory told them.

"Okay, now the hard part for us, who gets which element," Troy said,

"Well we've got five to choose from, try to make them match up with people's personalities I guess," Merideth said as she pulled out the Shen Gong Wu from their hiding spot. Everyone's eyes widened as they saw the treasures that were hidden.

"Worth a shot I guess," Troy said as he walked over to the pile and picked up a Shen Gong Wu that resembled a gold star with a ruby in the middle that fit in your hand.

"The Star Hanabi, you can use it as a boomerang or shoot fire from the ruby in the middle, so yeah obviously this is the fire one. Now who to give it to," Troy thought out loud, Hmm some one with some personality, maybe even a little temper, some one with a lot of energy, but at the same time a lot of control. Hmm I think I know." Troy said as he scanned the group.

"Carly catch," He said as he tossed the Star Hanabi to his sister,

"Dude cool! I get to play with fire! I won't let you down," She told him,

"Well duh, I wouldn't accept anything less from my little sis,"

"Great raise the bar for me, I love challenges,"

"Okay next, um, water." Troy said as Merideth handed him the Orb of Tornami, a pale blue sphere about the size of a soccer ball.

"Water, complete concentration, ebe and flow, you gotta be really calm and focused to be able to wield water, especially with the Orb capable of producing huge amounts of water in seconds. Someone who can go with the flow. Okay I know, Mallory, here, take it."

"Water's nice, I like water, am I really that calm and collected,"

"Cool as ice,"

"Well thanks,"

"Welcome, hmm wind," Troy said as he picked up the Sword of the Storm,

"Wind is like water, has to be calm and just go with things at time, but then at the same time, be able to unleash a hurricane force fury at one time. Hmm Ben, the wind always helps you make those crazy goals doesn't it?"

"Yeah, some say that, I prefer to say it's skill." Ben told him,

"Well here you go then, skill or not," Troy said as he handed Ben the Sword.

"Sweet, so can I like stab things and slice things with this?"

"Actually no, the sword phases through any physical objects, with do any harm,"

"Really?"

"Yeah, go ahead, take a swing at me, I don't care, it won't hurt,"

"You sure,"

"Yeah, positive,"

"Okay," Ben said as he plunged the sword towards Troy's chest. Everyone shuddered in fear and closed their eyes. When they opened their eyes, Ben was holding the hilt of a sword with a phantom blade through Troy's stomach. Everyone gasped with amazement. Ben pulled the sword back and it was clean. Troy all of a sudden fell to the ground though, Everyone rushed over to him,

"Oh my gosh Troy oh my gosh, are you okay?" Carly told him panicking, trying to figure out what was wrong,

"Dude, I'm sorry, I didn't think it'd do that," Ben told him.

"It's okay, I didn't think so either, my only regret is that I couldn't carry the mission out," Troy said,

"What are you saying Troy?" Courtney asked fearing for her friend's life,

"I don't think my time is long here, at least I still have my honor." He hoarsely said to everyone,

"No Troy don't go!" Merideth said, "Don't die, please don't die!"

"Merideth, is that you? I can hardly tell everything's becoming so feint."

"Yeah it's me Troy, what do you need,"

"Come here, if I'm about to die, there's something I need to tell you,"

"Okay, what is it,"

"Come closer, it's important, really important; you need to know this,"

"Okay, what is it," she said as she knelt down beside her friend in his time of need,

"Well I kinda sorta needed to tell you, that I," he paused for a second and then began to whisper in her ear, "gotcha!" and closed his eyes.

"What'd he say?" Courtney asked, wondering what her friend's last words were.

Merideth jumped up, "Troy Setters get up this instant! Oh my gosh I can't believe I fell for that,"

Troy opened his eyes and helped himself up, "That was pretty good wasn't it?"

"You little faker, you had me so upset, oh my gosh Troy, I actually thought you were dying,"

"Oh my gosh Troy, that was really good, don't do it again, how would I explain that to out parents?" Carly asked,

"Easy, I was stabbed by a mythological sword," He told her, he turned to Merideth, "Okay, I really am sorry, I didn't know it was gonna make you this upset,"

"We you should've. Come on, I care about you so much, you had me so worried, I thought you were gonna die, I would've had no idea what to do. And you think just a sorry makes up for it? You give me a heart attack and scare me half to death and all you say is sorry, no that doesn't cut it, I'm tired of your crazy pranks Troy, gosh one of these times what if it isn't a prank, I can't stand always trying to figure out if you're kidding or not, not cool, I'm really mad at you,"

"Merideth, come on," Troy pleaded,

"No,"

"Merideth, I hate it when you act like this,"

"Good,"

"Come on, what's it gonna take? Please, I'm sorry, I won't do anymore silly pranks anymore,"

Merideth looked at Troy and cracked a smile, "Gotcha"

"Oh wow," Troy said as he looked to the sky, smiled and shook his head, "That was good, I actually thought you were mad at me there for a minute,"

"See I can get you just as good,"

"Yeah, well you may have won this battle, but the war isn't over. Well get back to this later. Hand me the next Wu, let's get back to business." Merideth handed him a giant golden fist known as the Fist of Tebigong.

"Earth, someone who's hard headed and stubborn, hmm," Everyone immediately pointed at Keeton. Keeton looked around,

"What? Why is everyone pointing at me? Okay, fine just give it to me," He said to Troy.

Troy gave him the fist of Tebigong. Then turned to his little sister Abby, "Well you're last," He said as Merideth handed him the Eye of Dashi. "You always have bundles of energy, that extra spark, Lighting is perfect for you," He said as he gave her the pendant.

"Well duh, save the best for last," she said as she put the pendant around her neck. "So what's this all about?"

"I'll give you details later," He said, "I don't know about Merideth and Courtney, but I haven't eaten or slept in forever, I'd really like and big juicy cheeseburger, a giant chocolate shake and a nice comfy bed, not in that order."

"Well," Ben said looking sown at his watch, "It's lunch time so it looks like we're heading back to the cabins to get lunch."

"But the cabins, I thought," Courtney wondered,

"Nope, the fire stopped short of them, they're alright," Keeton said.

"Well then lets go, everyone, hide your Shen Gong Wu, so we don't get caught with them," Troy told everyone as they walked towards the buses,

Merideth stopped Troy though, "Uh hello, we're supposed to be dead, remember?"

"True, well we'll just sneak onto a different bus then,"

Troy, Merideth and Courtney secretly piled into the bus with everyone else on it. When they got back to the cabins everyone got off,

"You do realize how much stuff we just smuggled through a bus?" Courtney said,

"Yep, shows how safe these buses are," Troy said as they walked inside. As everyone got in, they piled their Shen Gong Wu in a corner of the room.

"If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room, "Troy said as he headed up to his room,

"Hey, what do you want me to do about that burger?" Keeton asked,

"It's alright; I'll make myself one later,"

"Okay, more for me then,"

Troy got into his room and fell onto his bed. Most of his stuff was still packed seeing as the fire forced them out before he could finish unpacking. Troy dug through his bag that Merideth gave him and found that he left a tennis ball in there. Troy grabbed the ball and started throwing it off the wall. Hearing all the noise coming from his room, Merideth went to talk to him.

"Hey what's up, I thought you were going to sleep?" She said standing in Troy's doorway,

"I probably will eventually, come on in, what's new," Troy said as he caught the tennis ball and sat it down.

"I don't know, just too much stress I guess, I'm not sure if I can hold the fate of the world in my hands, I almost lost it when I thought you died, I don't think I could bear it if anything happened to anyone, especially you or Courtney,"

"I know, look I promise, everything's gonna be alright, I won't let anything bad happen to me or to you or to anyone else, I promise,"

"Thanks, that makes me feel a little better,"

"Come cheer up, we're having fun, its not everyday you get to save the world,"

"Yeah, true,"

"I mean think about it, I'm a hero now, isn't that so cool?"

"Yeah, that is pretty cool,"

"See and you are too, you're gonna be alright,"

"Yeah, I guess so,"

"Don't guess, gosh I don't know what else to tell you. You're Merideth, nothing ever gets you down. Come on, we just had the adventure of our life, you almost killed me, in it though, but still we had fun didn't we?"

"Yeah, I guess,"

"Oh you know you did. You know if you had another chance to swing that sword at me you'd do it."

Merideth sat there thinking about it,

"Whatever you do, don't smile, just don't smile," He told her, Merideth couldn't help but smile,

"Yeah, that was pretty fun; I'm pretty good with a sword, probably better than you,"

"Okay let's keep it realistic here,"

"We're fighting a two thousand year old entity with magical artifacts, I think we're past realistic,"

"True,"

"Well hey thanks Troy, I feel a lot better."

"You're welcome, anytime,"

"Okay, well hey; you still want that chocolate milkshake?"

"Yeah sure, that sounds pretty good right now,"

"Okay, I'll go make it for you, be back in a few,"

"Aw, that's nice, thanks,"

"You're welcome,"

"Wait, you're being nice to me, who are you and what did you do with Merideth?"

"Nothing, I'm allowed to be nice every now and then. You want whipped cream?"

"With a cherry,"

"Of course, well hold on I'll be back, see ya,"

"Bye,"

Troy grabbed his tennis ball and began bouncing it against the wall. After the second throw Carly walked in.

"Hey," she said, as she grabbed the tennis ball out of mid-air,

"Hey what was that for?" He asked his sister,

"Too slow,"

"Funny, now give it too me,"

"You'll get it back eventually,"

"Fine, what do you want?"

"So you tell her?"

"Nope,"

"Why not?"

"Every time I start to something happens and screws it up,"

"What about a couple seconds ago, I saw her walk out of here,"

"Nah, she's got too much going on, I don't wanna add that burden to her,"

"Okay fine, well you are gonna tell her eventually right?"

"Yeah, I plan on it,"

"Okay good, you better or you'll have to deal with me,"

"I promise I'll tell her eventually, the timing just isn't right."

"Good,"

"Yeah plus I don't wanna deal with your wrath, I'm so scared," He said jokingly,

"You should be scared now that I can throw fire at you," She threatened him,

Troy thought about it for a minute, "Crap you're right,"

"Ha bad idea giving me that. So what's gonna happen?"

"with what?"

"With this battle?"

"I don't know, only time will tell,"

"We're gonna win aren't we?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way, of course we will,"

"Good, needed to hear that. Well I'll let you go back to doing whatever you were doing." She said as she tossed him the tennis ball. "Have fun,"

"You know I will,"

Carly laughed, "Whatever see you in a few hours," she said before leaving. Troy went back to throwing the ball but eventually got tired of it. Troy set the ball on his table and grabbed the remote to his ipod stereo. He laid in his bed and stared at the ceiling like he has so many times before. Before going off into his deep sleep he turned on his music to help him relax. He shuffled through artists until he got to a certain one, Matchbox Twenty. He didn't know why but he just always found their music relaxing. He turned on one of his favorite songs by them, If You're Gone, and began to think,

"Wow what a trip, this has been crazy, I mean me and all my best friends are set up to save the world, and I'm the leader, that's a lot of responsibility. Can I handle it? I hope so? I wonder when our missions will start? Gosh I'm kinda scared, what if I'm not that good? Well that's why I have people like Merideth and Courtney and Carly to push me to be better. Do it for them, not for me, do it for everyone."

Troy grabbed his remote and changed it to his other favorite song, 3 AM.

"And Carly's right, I really do need to tell her, I don't know, I just can't, every time I try things happen to stop me, I hate it. Is my luck really this bad? I guess. Maybe it's some sort of sick karma,"

Troy rolled on his side, "hmm, I wonder where she is with that milkshake, gosh I can't wait for it, Gosh I have too much on my mind, that milkshake will be relaxing, just too much stress. But then again we all are pretty stressed out, it happens."

Troy rolled back onto his back, stared at the ceiling and began to sing along to his ipod,

"Baby, it's three a.m. and I must be lonely… When she says baby… well I can't help but be scared of it all sometimes… she says the rains gonna wash away I believe it…."

He turned back on his side one last time, "And the rain's gonna wash away. Yeah, I believe it," he said with a smile as he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Merideth walked into Troy's room carrying a giant chocolate shake topped with mounds of whipped cream and a big cherry.

"One chocolate milkshake with the works?" She asked, she didn't get a response,

"Troy? Hello? I have your milkshake," She repeated, after still getting silence she walked over to his bed,

"Oh, he's asleep," she said as she set the milkshake down on his table and picked up his remote and turned off the ipod,

"There, that should make it quieter, sleep well Troy, you've earned it." She told him even though he wasn't listening,

"Gosh, you better not be having some crazy dream right now, or if you are I better hear about it,"

She walked around a little, "What am I doing? He's asleep he can't hear me, I must be going crazy, he's the one who's supposed to be like this, not me,"

She looked at his milkshake that was slowly melting, "gosh and I worked hard on that milkshake, I wanted you to enjoy it, after all you've been through in the last day you deserve a milkshake. But I might as well not let it go to waste then, you won't care if I steal I sip of it will you?" She asked the sleeping Troy,

"Well I take your silence as a no then," she said before grabbing the shake and slurping down some of it,

"Ugh, that's right, this is chocolate, how do you like this stuff?" She said as she put the glass back on the table, "Oh well, if it makes you happy," She said before yawning.

"Gosh I think you have the right idea, I could go for some sleep too," she told him as she looked out his window towards the sun setting over the horizon. "wow, that's pretty, you should see this, oh wait, you're asleep, never mind," She said as she slowly walked away. But stopped at his bed and told him

"Well have a good sleep, you're gonna need it," She said,

As she got to the doorway she looked in one last time and before closing the door said,

"We're all gonna need it,"


	5. A Return to the Past

_All I'm gonna say is... bum bum bum_

* * *

Chapter 4

"Oh wow, I feel so much better now." Troy said as he woke from his nap. "Hmm, there was something I was gonna do, what was it?" He asked him self as he looked around trying to gain some sense of what he was gonna do. "Oh yeah, milkshake!" He said as he grabbed the glass. Troy noticed most of the milkshake had melted, but he could still tell someone had stolen part of it. "Merideth," He told him self as he grabbed the glass and flew out of the room and down the stairs.

"Hey, did you-"he said as he saw her when he got downstairs, "Whoa, where is everyone?" He asked her.

"In bed duh," She told him.

"Really, what time is it?"

"Um, about one in the morning,"

"Well wait, why aren't you in bed then,"

"I don't know, can't sleep. We had a little mini party down here and after it was over I started to think about what you said before."

"When I said what?"

"About how we're heroes, how the fate of the world is on our backs. It's a lot to deal with."

"Yeah, I know it is,"

"And with school and track and all my other things, I don't think I have time to be a hero,"

"Oh come on, I bet your coach would let you skip practice to go save the world." Merideth looked at him with her, "you're kidding right?" look.

"Yeah and then next thing you know, you'll be cool,"

"Ha very funny," Troy told her,

"But seriously," Merideth said as she walked over to the window overlooking the side of the forest that survived the fire, "what if I'm not meant for this, what if I can't be a good hero?"

"Merideth, there was a reason you were chosen, trust me,"

"Why should I,"

"Because you know I'm right, you just don't want to admit it, there's a reason for everything,"

"Really you think so?" She said as she started to get a little frustrated, "Is there a reason for that fire ten years ago huh? What possible reason could there be? Or what about Taryn what was the reason there? Or for our stupid teachers. No Troy everything doesn't have a reason, there's no reason I was chosen, I shouldn't have been chosen, Zane got it wrong,"

Troy sat by her on the window sill. "Merideth look, maybe that was the wrong choice of words. But I guarantee you that picking you were the right choice. You're smart, strong, brave, you can think on your feet, you've got all the qualities of a great hero. I just wish you could see that. The way you've been able to fight through everything you've been through, there's no better choice then you. Come on, don't leave me hanging, I can't be everyone's hero, even I need some help,"

"You've got five apprentices, have them do it,"

"They're nice, but they're only good in certain situations, what if their element isn't favored, they're I hate to say it, but next to useless."

"Well what about Courtney, she's got practically the same job as me,"

"Courtney's great, I mean I can't think of anyone else who'd risk everything like she did for us, but comparing you two, there's just something about you that she doesn't have, I don't know exactly what it is, some kind of x factor like thing, one of those indescribable qualities that separates the two of you."

"Uh huh, sure,"

"Look I don't know how else to say it. It's just kinda one of those destiny things. You can't explain it, but you just gotta have faith that it will all work out in the end. Come on, so what if maybe you mess up once or twice along the way, you've got some of your friends with you, you've got your sister, who is one of the best sisters ever, better then mine, right there besides you always ready to pick you up when you fall, and hey, you've got me, what could be better?"

"A cheese sandwich,"

"You're saying you'd rather have a cheese sandwich then me?"

"Yeah pretty much,"

"I hate you, you're always mean to me,"

"I know, its fun,"

"Well hate to break your bubble, but we're out of bread so your stuck with me,"

"Aw, oh well, I can live with that I guess. You know Troy, you're a good motivational speaker you know that?"

"Really? Um okay, thanks I think,"

"Yes it's a good thing, ha it'd be funny to see you as a motivational speaker," They both started laughing. Troy got up and walked over to a chair and stood behind it as if it were a podium.

"Yes I am here today to tell you how to run your life," Troy said in his most professional sounding voice.

"Hmm, nah never mind,"

"Yeah thought you'd say that," Troy said as he walked back over to the window sill.

"Hey Troy, thanks for the talk, I think I can really do it now," Merideth told him,

"You're welcome. Now um, what I came down here about. Someone took a nice sip of my milkshake," He said in a somewhat accusing tone.

"What? Me? No? I'd never do something like that,"

"Uh huh, sure. Well you made it, you brought it up, and you said you all had a party so no one else would've came up so it must've been you,"

"Okay fine it was me,"

"You actually understood all of that?"

"Nope, just so many big words I figured somehow there was a way to make me reveal it in there."

"Actually I have no idea what I just said,"

"Oh great,"

"Ha but I got a confession anyways,"

"Okay fine you did, I'm sorry,"

"It's alright, I already have enough Merideth germs on me anyways, don't need more from drinking after you,"

"Where'd you get my germs from?"

"Um, water bottle?"

"Oh ok, well that doesn't count,"

"Okay, whatever, well I'm gonna go make another milkshake, you want anything?"

"Um, grab me a Gatorade,"

"Okay, no ice cream?"

"Nah, I'll pass,"

"Okay, more for me then," He said as he walked over to the kitchen,

"You know," Merideth said looking out the window, "What ever happened to that whole thing about Chase Young?"

"I don't know, good question," Troy said as he scooped out some chocolate ice cream and threw it in the blender with some chocolate milk.

"Yeah, I mean," She said as she turned around to see Troy cutting a banana into slices,

"What are you doing?"

"Hello, peanut butter banana chocolate milkshake isn't complete without the bananas,"

"Eww that's gross,"

"Hey don't diss it until you try it, you sure you don't want some?"

"Yeah, I'm positive,"

"Okay then," he said as he turned on the blender.

"But really, he could be anywhere," she said staring out the window, "I wonder where he is, I wonder if he's found recruits, I wonder what's gonna happen?"

"You know, you think too much," Troy said as he stopped the blender, "If you thought this much during school like you're supposed to, you're grades would be as good as mine," he told her before emptying the blender's cup into his milkshake glass.

"Um hello, it's not my fault school is so boring,"

"True, I guess it's not your fault, I do get pretty bored in school sometimes." Troy said as he grabbed a Gatorade out of the refrigerator for Merideth. " Lighten up, have some fun, we're on a field trip, try to make the best of what's left, just because you're a hero doesn't mean you have to abandon everything else in life, I'm the super smart one, leave the thinking to me. You just do what you're best at," He said as he walked over to the window sill and gave Merideth her Gatorade.

"Which is what?"

"Have fun of course,"

"Ha yeah you're right,"

"Duh, hey cheers," he said as he raised his glass in the air, "A toast to us, for being heroes and saving the world. Yeah well forget that, How about a toast to us because you and me are so cool, well we just deserve a toast in our honor!"

"Ha yep, of course. Cheers," She said as she clanked her Gatorade bottle with Troy's milkshake. Then they each downed large amounts of their drink.

"Wow, we're such weirdoes," Troy said, "We just made a toast with Gatorade and a milkshake, we have no life."

"Yep pretty much right. Our life is now a lot of world saving."

"Yeah, unfortunately you're right, but hey there's one thing I know,"

"What?"

"We're gonna find Chase Young and give him the butt kicking that he's two thousand years over do for!" He said as he raised his glass in the air,

"Yeah!" Merideth said as they had a second toast, this one in the honor of kicking Chase's butt.

Merideth looked out to the horizon, and saw a mountain on the edge of the horizon,

"Ha yeah for all we know he could be at that mountain right now, hiding in fear because he knows were close and ready to kick his butt,"

"Who knows, nobody has any idea,"

But what neither of them knew was how correct Merideth's presumptions were, except for the hiding in fear, she was more right than she knew. For things were happening in that mountain on the distance, things of evil proportions. After two thousand years, Chase has returned to his lair. As Troy and Merideth sat by the windowsill, enjoy their drinks and each other's company Chase was formulating his plans.

Chase entered his lair stowed away in a mountaintop. "I'm finally free, two thousand years of solitude isn't nice, but it has given me time to plot my revenge. I must finish what I started and eliminate Zane so the Heylin forces can rule the world. Unfortunately, I'm assuming all my old apprentices have long since passed on, I must scout out new ones, I fear Zane has probably already done the same too." Chase began to ponder his next move as he looked around to examine his lair,

"For two thousand years, this place looks new, how could this be?" He thought out loud,

"Don't worry, I have kept this place up to date for you while you were gone," a mysterious female said as she walked into the room.

"Who are you?" Chase asked, "I've seen you in my dreams many times, but I have no idea who you are,"

"I'm Zarina, your twin sister,"

"Impossible, I've never had any siblings,"

"You've never had any that you knew of; we were separated at birth, never to know each other,"

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"Maybe this will work," Zarina turned around and pulled up her hair to reveal a birthmark sprawled down her neck that resembled a dragon,"

"That mark, it is the family seal. It's true. You are my sister."

"Yes, now that you trust me, I've been keeping things up to date for you. All you're maps are as current as possible. I've been out and scouted things out for you while you were gone,"

"Well isn't that generous,"

"Yes, but there's a downside,"

"Which is what?"

"When Zane did his spell to seal you away, it had some adverse effects on me,"

"As a human, I am confined to the lair; I can only leave if I were to become a spirit. And now that you're here, the last effect activates,"

"Which is?"

"The seal tightens; I can't leave the lair at all."

"Why would Zane put so much emphasis on stopping you?"

"When I was younger I met Zane once or twice, he considers me a threat, he knows how powerful I can get."

"Okay, well since you can't leave,"

"Well actually there is one way I can leave,"

"How?"

"Through a spell,"

"What kind of spell?"

"A spell called Heylin Fusion,"

"Heylin Fusion?"

"It requires three strong Heylin apprentices. They must be able to focus their chi energy extremely well. Heylin Fusion will unite their chi energy together allowing them to summon me from my prison,"

"Then I am right, I need to find apprentices, I fear Zane is probably leagues ahead of me in the process, I will get the Seal of the Xylos and I will rule the world!"

"Then go Chase," Zarina said as she tossed him a map, "You need young apprentices, strong willed, high amounts of energy. That map shows the only school in the area, you're bound to find a handful of people there that can satisfy your needs."

"How do you get these maps?"

"I have my ways, now go!"

Chase ran towards the exit but stopped and turned to his sister, "I will break this curse for both of us, we will have our vengeance," Zarina nodded her head in agreement as Chase took off running.

Chase began running through the woods when he came to a clearing and stopped. "These ruins look familiar," He thought to himself. "Wait, no, it can't be, but it is, these are the ruins that Zane and I fought in two thousand years ago. Let's go see how things have changed." He said as he walked towards the ruins. But he stopped,

"There's an abundance of people here, it seems the ruins have been turned into some tourist attraction. I'll have to stay low and blend in; odds are the kids who freed Zane are here I could maybe get some information for myself about them or maybe find some potential recruits,"

Chase was right though. As he said that a small group of students entered the ruins, about eight in size. He decided to tail them for a while, see if maybe by chance they could give him some information about what was going on.

The group ahead turned out to be Troy and his friends. As they were admiring some of the work they couldn't before because they were too busy advancing to get their Shen Gong Wu, another group of students came in.

"Well what do you know, if it isn't Troy and all of his little buddies," One of the girls in the group said. "Hey Carly, I heard you lost the game for us the other day, I meant to tell you congratulations and thanks!"

"I'm not in the mood Marissa," Carly fired back, "It didn't even matter anyways, ever hear of the word preseason?"

"Ha whatever, it's just showing what's to come, looks like this is gonna be another season full of losses," Marissa replied, "Besides, you never denied that you lost the game anyways,"

"Shut up now!" Carly told her. Carly's temper was shortening very quickly. Carly started to reach for her Star Hanabi that she put in her back pocket. Abby saw what she was planning and stepped forward to defend her sister,

"Okay first off, Carly didn't lose the game for us, the team lost, there's no I in team, we all lost it. Second, at least Carly's even on the team, oh wait, she's even co-captain, well along with me," Abby said, adding some self praise into her speech. "And I seem to remember a certain person didn't even make the team. I just can't remember her name," she said as she turned to her friends, "Anybody know?" She asked them,

"Hmm, I can't seem to remember," Ben said as he decided to play along. "Umm, I think it started with an N,"

"No no no, it was definitely an M," Keeton said as he joined along,

"Hmm who do we know whose name starts with an M?" Abby asked,

"Oh oh oh! I know!" Ben said, "It's my cousin, it's Mallory!"

"Hey wait a minute; I had no part in that!" She snapped back,

"True, that's right; you're a band geek, my bad,"

"Whatever," She told her cousin,

"Ooh I know! It's Merideth!" Courtney told them,

"Yes because I just had to try out for the team alright, uh huh, keep guessing," Merideth told her sister,

"Yeah, you probably couldn't even be a water girl anyways," Troy said before getting a slap to the back of the head,

"Chill, I'm kidding, you can't be the water girl because they don't have any, jeez,"

"Oh, well, don't do it again!"

"Okay, but you know, there is one other person I can think of whose name begins with an M,"

"Who?" Abby asked,

"Turn around; unless there's some silent letter for some reason, I'm pretty sure Marissa starts with an M,"

"Hey, you're right, it does," Abby realized, as she looked over to Marissa. "Now that I think about it, I do seem to remember someone named Marissa trying out for the team. It's hard to remember her though because she wasn't that good, all I remember is the mistakes,"

"Hey, look, she didn't even try that hard, her parents made her try out, she could've easily made the team if she wanted to," One of the other members, Ryan, said

"Yeah, I wanted to focus on track anyways, my parents said that it's not a real sport so they made me tryout for something else," Marissa agreed

What nobody noticed during their bickering was that Chase had entered the room and was standing quietly in the corner watching the drama unfold, no idea of who he was watching.

Don't worry, I got it from here," Carly told her sister as she took the lead again. Abby nodded and stepped back, but never took her eyes off the Star Hanabi her sister was holding.

"Troy may I borrow your phone?" Carly asked her brother. Marissa and her friends looked confused.

"Uh, sure," Troy said, "Just let me find it," Troy began digging through his pockets and pulling out random items, "Uh, headphones, wallet, yo-yo,"

"Troy why do you have a yo-yo?" Courtney asked

"Uh I don't know, entertainment I guess,"

"Oh cool, can I see it?"

"Sure," Troy said as he tossed Courtney the yo-yo. Courtney began playing with the yo-yo and everyone began to look at her,

"What? He's the most unorganized person in the world, this is gonna take a while, might as well entertain myself," She told them as she still played with the yo-yo.

"Hey, while you're giving stuff away, can I have your wallet?" Ben asked,

"Ha ha, very funny, nice try, but no," Troy told him. "What else do we have, pencil, folded up math homework, hey I was looking for that, um, oh hey phone!"

"Well that was actually a little quicker than I thought," Courtney said, "You want the yo-yo back?"

"Nah, you can keep it,"

"Yay! I wasn't gonna give it back anyways,"

"Yeah kinda figured, well enjoy it, that's you're early birthday present,"

"That's it? A yo-yo? Cheapskate,"

"Hey, I never said that was all,"

"Um, excuse me; can we get back to more important matters at hand?" Carly asked,

"Oh yeah sure, sorry, here's the phone," Troy apologized as he gave her the phone. Carly stuck the Star Hanabi back in her pocket and began to scroll through the various menus,

"Troy your phone is way too slow," Carly told him,

"Yeah I know, I need a new one,"

"All three of us do," Abby said,

"Well dad said we'd get them in probably Juneish," Carly told them, "Ok, finally here we go, take a look at this," Both groups gathered around Carly watching the video that she pulled up.

The video clip was Marissa talking on the phone to someone, who everyone later realized was Ryan. After waiting through the sniffles, Marissa began to speak in the clip.

""It's no fair, I work as hard as can, I try my best, just to get the one thing I wanted, a spot on the soccer team, and they cut me from the team, it's just not fair," This was followed by a few seconds of sobbing and crying. As the clip ended there was an eerie silence in the room. The silence was great enough that when Carly closed Troy's phone it was louder than usual.

"Don't you just love camera phones?" Carly asked as she gave Troy's phone back. "So what do you think?"

"That was a private conversation, how'd you get a hold of that,"

"We have our ways," Carly said,

"Besides, you were in public," he said with an emphasis on public, "There's nothing private when you're in public," once again emphasizing public, "If you want some privacy go to where it's private, because your interrupting our public," Troy said. Everyone looked at him with a confused look,

"Okay it sounded better in my head, I'll explain it later," He told his friends. Everyone turned their attention to Marissa who was on the verge of tears. Without saying a word, she stormed out of the room, face buried in her hands.

"Oh great, look what you did, we'll get you back for this," Ryan said before Marissa's four friends stormed out of the room.

When they had all left, everyone turned to Carly. Carly didn't know why they were all staring at her; Abby stepped forward and stuck her hand out. "Okay okay, here," Carly said as she handed over the Star Hanabi.

Chase who was still standing in the corner noticed this, "That's the Star Hanabi," He thought to himself, "These are the apprentices, well then I think I might go look into that other group of kids then. I've seen enough here," Chase said as he slipped out of the room down the hallway in the direction that Marissa and company had went.

Meanwhile, Abby asked Carly, "We're you planning on using this?"

"No, not really," Carly told her sister, "I could never bring myself to do something like that,"

"Carly," Troy stepped up, "You can't just go around threatening to use Shen Gong Wu, remember, with great power comes great responsibility." Carly started laughing,

'What?" Troy asked her,

"Oh come on, that's like the most clichéd line of the twenty-first century. Everyone's seen Spiderman. You don't know how hard it is to take you seriously when you do that,"

"Yeah I know, I've just always wanted to say that, and you gave me the perfect opportunity."

"Ha fine, you got your chance now. I'm sorry; I promise I'd never do something like that,"

"Okay, works for me," Abby said as she gave the Star Hanabi back to her sister.

"Come on, I'm hungry, it's close to lunch time, let's get out of here," Keeton told them. Everyone agreed. They left the ancient ruins with so many new memories to grab a bite to eat.

Meanwhile Chase hunted down the recuperated Marissa and her friends.

"Excuse me, I couldn't help but noticing your little conflict back there. They're so mean, you didn't deserve that treatment." Chase said, trying to gain their trust.

"Yeah you're right, so what?" Marissa told him

"What would you say if I told you I had a way you could get your revenge and then some?"

"Um, sure, I guess,"

"I had a feeling you would agree, now follow me,"

"To where?"

"My secret lair, where I'll be able to give you the power to make them wish they never messed with you." Marissa turned to her friends,

"What do you think?" All of them nodded in agreement.

"Okay, let us leave then,"

Chase led them through the forest to his lair. When he got there, he greeted them to Zarina.

"Hello, I see you've found your new apprentices." She told her brother.

"Yes I have now come, help me decide who will wield each element," Chase told her.

"Okay, let's go," Zarina led Chase and the "apprentices" down to an inner portion of Chase's lair. When they got there Chase turned to address his pupils.

"I am Chase Young, from now on, you will obey me, if you don't there will be serious consequences. If you do, you will be rewarded greatly. Now the first thing I must do is determine an element for each of you."

Chase paced back and forth, examining every detail of his five recruits. Then stopped in front of Marissa.

"You, you seem like you have a lot of rage built up. I need you to embrace that, the potential is great. What is your name?"

"Marissa," She told him.

"Marissa you shall be my Heylin apprentice of fire," he told her as he handed her a red belt.

"Yes sir," she said

"Take this belt, a symbol of your allegiance,"

Chase began to pace again, this time stopping at Ryan.

"You seem to be the defensive one. I don't like that; everyone should be able to stick up for themselves." Chase told him, "Well I believe I know what will work for you, the only element with defense in it, you shall be my Heylin apprentice of water," He said as he handed Ryan a blue belt.

"Thank you, my name's Ryan" he told Chase

Chase proceeded down the line to Chris. "Hmm, you're an interesting one, I can tell that there's a side hiding, an unpredictable side. Never become predictable, it gives your enemies an advantage. You shall be the Heylin apprentice of wind," He said before handing Chris a green belt,

"Cool! I'm Chris," He replied,

"Hmm, the stubborn looking one, I bet you have an attitude too, you may be trouble for me,"

"Hey what's that supposed to mean?" Erik asked

"Silence!"

"Yes sir,"

"You, assuming you can obey my commands, shall be my Heylin apprentice of Earth." He told him before handing him a black belt.

"Okay fine, the name's Erik by the way,"

"And you, the last one," Chase said, "I guess I have no choice but to do so, what's your name?"

"Megan," she said,

"Megan, you are the Heylin apprentice of lightning," He said before handing her a yellow belt.

"Yay!"

"What was that?"

"I-I mean, yes sir,"

"Okay, now that you have gotten your elements here is what's happening. Two thousand years ago I fought a man named Zane; I was winning the whole fight. Zane knew he was struggling, so he placed a spell on me, locking us both in a Shen Gong Wu, a mystical treasure with ancient powers. Well those kids you were arguing with released us. But part of the curse is still there, it even affected my sister Zarina. She cannot leave my lair unless three of you learn Heylin fusion. I will decided in the next few weeks who is worthy of being taught the ancient art. But you must defeat the others that are working for Zane and claim their Seal of the Xylos, with that is the only way I can be completely free,"

"Chase, it's getting late, we need to get them back to their trip before people figure their missing, it could blow our cover."

"You're right." He said to his sister. He then turned to the apprentices, "I must release you for now, you will learn more soon,"

Chase then led them back to the ruins; they got there as everyone was boarding the buses. The Heylin apprentices got on a bus and began their voyage home. As Chase watched them leave, he mumbled to himself, "I hope you are ready, for this is only the beginning."

Troy and his friends boarded a different bus to return to the school.

"You think we were too hard on Marissa?" Ben asked when they all sat down in their normal back of the bus seats.

"I got lost about halfway through," Mallory said.

"Those two have been going at it for years," Abby told them,

"It's not my fault she thinks she's to cool or something, and I just tell it to her like it is, besides I wasn't the one who started it, she did," Carly said.

"Who really started it?" Mallory asked.

"We're not completely sure, it just happened one day. We think it was because Carly decided to join track as well as soccer and Marissa felt she was moving in on her space or something," Merideth told them, "I just remember coming to practice one day and Marissa just went crazy because I brought Carly,"

"Yeah that's about it, I remember hearing all about it from both of them," Troy said,

"Well what do you have to say about it?" Mallory asked Carly,

"Not much else, she hates me, I hate her, that's about it," Carly told her.

"So, what a trip huh?" Keeton told them, trying to change to a more lighthearted topic,

"Yeah, now I get to go home and wash my jacket," Courtney said,

"Ha yeah true, have fun with that, that was your good jacket too," Merideth told her,

"Yeah I know, oh well, it was worth it,"

"That's what Tide's for anyways," Troy told her,

"I still think we should sue him," Courtney said,

"Yeah I know, but we probably can't it could blow our cover," Troy told her,

"Aw dang, oh well I guess there's nothing we can do about it," Courtney said.

Then there was a loud yawn to break the silence, everyone turned to look at Keeton who was yawning. "What? It's been a long weekend, I'm gonna go to sleep, wake me up when we hit school." He said.

"Well someone's already one step ahead of you," Carly said as she pointed over to her sister sitting next to her, curled up in the seat, fast asleep using her hoodie as a pillow.

"Wow, that's Abby for you," Troy said, "One minute, she's full of energy, the next, she's out of it."

"I think I might get a little shut eye too," Mallory told them,

"Yeah me too, too much partying, too much adventure," Ben said before he started to go to sleep as well.

Troy turned to Carly, "you gonna sleep too?"

"I don't know," she said before yawning,

"Okay I think we know the answer to that," Troy told her,

"Yeah, I think so, you three staying up?"

"I am." Troy said, "You two going to sleep?" He asked Merideth and Courtney.

"Nah I don't think so," Merideth said,

"Yeah, me neither," Courtney told him,

"Well there you go," Troy told Carly, "Go to sleep, I'll wake you when we get to school."

"Okay, don't have too much fun," She told them before closing her eyes.

"Wow, just like that there's only three of us," Troy said,

"Yeah," Merideth and Courtney agreed.

"Now what?" Troy asked,

"I don't know, we've got some time to kill," Courtney told him, "Can you believe how much we've changed in all of one weekend?"

"Yeah I know," Merideth said, "Last time I come to those ruins,"

"I wonder if there will be any questions about Shen Gong Wu on the test over the ruins." Troy asked

"That's be funny," Merideth told him,

"Yeah, we'd be the only ones who'd know the answer." Courtney added.

"I wonder when we'll have to actually start being heroes," Troy pondered.

"I don't know, whenever you have your dream I guess," Merideth told him.

"Yeah who knows when that could be? I just realized, how are we going to deal with school at the same time? What if a Shen Gong Wu pops up while we're at school?"

"Umm, we just hope that we can either find a way to get out or the Heylin apprentices can't get it," Courtney said,

"Well I'm just assuming they're probably about our age so they're probably in school too," Merideth suggested,

"Um, they're evil apprentices, they do terrible things, I'm pretty sure they don't mind skipping a class or two to grab a Shen Gong Wu from us." Troy told her,

"Yeah, you're right I guess,"

The rest of the bus ride was spent doing random little things for each of them. When they finally got back to school, Troy, Merideth, and Courtney woke everyone up and got off the bus.

"Well it's been a great trip," Ben told everyone,

"Yeah, except that we have school tomorrow," Keeton said in dismay,

"We should all be getting home and resting," Mallory said,

"Yeah, you're probably right, you ready to go?" Carly asked Troy and Abby,

"I'm ready," Abby told her,

"Yeah let's go," Troy said, "See you guys tomorrow,"

"If you have any dreams you better let me know," Merideth ordered him,

"Okay okay okay, if I get a dream, you'll be the first person I tell happy?"

"Yeah, that works, well, bye then," Merideth told Troy, "Come on, let's go," She told Courtney,

"Okay okay, jeez miss bossy I'm coming I'm coming," Courtney told her sister, "Bye Troy, see you guys tomorrow," She said to her friends,

"Yeah see ya tomorrow then," Troy said,

When they got home, Troy went straight to his room to get some sleep. Troy had fallen asleep for a little while before he was woken up. He opened his eyes to see Carly sitting on the edge of his bed, "Hey," she said.

"Hey," Troy replied, "What time is it?"

"About midnight,"

"Ugh, what are you doing up?"

"I can't sleep,"

"Ugh, okay, what's the problem?"

"I don't know," She told him, "I think just part of its stress, a little anxiety, a little wondering,"

"Ugh, come on, I just gave this speech to Merideth, why couldn't you have been there for it?"

"I'm sorry. I don't know, It's just things went by so fast, we never really had any time to settle down, we were always busy, I think it's just now setting in about what's happening."

"It's alright, I don't blame you, we've been through a wild ride and it's nowhere close to over,"

"Yeah you're right, so how long do you think we'll be doing this saving the world stuff?"

"I don't know, I mean, they've been waiting for two thousand years, it could take a while,"

"As in like years?"

"Who knows? Maybe, there's no way of telling for sure,"

"This is like one of your crazy TV shows you watch where the plain old average kid turns into some superhero,"

"Yeah it pretty much is, now that you say that,"

"How do you do it Troy?"

"Do what?"

"Keep such a laid back and cool attitude about the whole thing, most of us are flipping out about everything, and you're chilled out sipping chocolate milkshakes," Troy looked at her with a puzzled face,

"Merideth told me about the milkshake scene, how does she not like chocolate ice cream?"

"You got me. But there is one thing I know,"

"What?"

"I really want a chocolate milkshake now,"

"Haha too bad, it's past midnight, you'd wake everyone using the blender,"

"I know, maybe I'll have one for breakfast then,"

"You want a chocolate milkshake for breakfast?"

"Yeah why not?"

"That's so weird, gosh sometimes I wonder how we're related,"

"We'll we're related because one time our parents-"

"Ah shut up! Ew, don't wanna hear about that,"

"I'm kidding, chill; I'm just messing around,"

"See there you go again, you have time to mess around and joke with everyone, how do you do it?"

"Carly, I was abandoned in the woods for a night, not much intimidates me anymore,"

"True,"

"You just gotta take life as it comes, and make the best of things. That's what life is, just a series of random events that happen. its how you deal with them that defines who you are."

"Wow that's deep, where'd you learn to say stuff like that?"

"I've always known how I just never like to use it,"

"Oh okay. So you're saying it was practically destiny or something that brought us here and how we handle our lives basically defines how good of a hero we are?"

"Yeah, something like that,"

"Thanks Troy, you always have the answers I'm gonna go to bed now,"

"Night," he told his sister, "Oh wait, Carly!"

"What?"

"Next time I give a speech like that, make sure you're with Merideth so I don't have to repeat it,

"Ha okay I'll try, oh by the way," Carly said as she pointed to Troy's phone sitting on his stand, "Looks like you got a message from her,"

"Oh great, here we go," Troy told her, As he grabbed the phone and read the message that said, "Any dreams yet?" Troy told Carly what it said and they both laughed.

"Yeah, it will be odd once you start getting them again, try not to wake me up this time," Carly told him,

"Okay I'll try,"

"So what are you gonna tell her?"

"I don't know, I'll figure something out in the morning," He said. Carly laughed,

"Okay, well see you tomorrow, which is actually today," She told Troy," Good night, don't have too much fun in dream world,"

"I'll try not," he told her as she walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.

Troy put his phone back on the stand and rolled onto his back, "I'm supposed to be asleep how can I answer a text if I'm asleep, gosh Merideth," he said laughing to himself, "But really, what is gonna happen when I start having dreams, I'm gonna lose a bunch of sleep And it'll cause a bunch of chaos, I'll just have to fight through it then." He said as he turned back onto his side like he was before,

"Until then, I'm going to enjoy all the sleep I can get, I could use a nice amount, so hopefully no dream tonight, give things time to settle down. Well off to dream world I guess," Troy said before starting to fall asleep, "Who knows what adventures await me there,"

Troy fell asleep and entered his dream world, but what he didn't realize was, his adventures there had just begun…


	6. Dreamscape

_Okay sorry, I've been busy lately with projects and activities and exams and suff but yeah, here's the next chapter finally._

* * *

Crash! The glass wall of the encasing shattered spraying shards of jagged, sharp glass in every direction, as Troy threw his left fist through the glass barrier. Troy reached inside and grabbed a disk looking object about the size of a hockey puck with a square hole in the middle.

"Yeah this looks like it," He said as he held it out and examined it.

Suddenly, a large fireball flew through the air, passing between Troy's head and his outstretched arm. Troy turned to see Marissa flying down the hallway, with balls of fire glowing from both of her hands.

"Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!" he said as he watched the fireball sore down the hallway. "Okay, that was a bad time to quote Jerry Lee Lewis," Troy turned to notice Marissa was standing at the edge of the hallway, shocked.

"Wait a minute, you're one of the Xiaolin apprentices, that's gonna make things harder, sharing a common ground with the enemy," Marissa told him.

"You know, why am I not surprised someone like you would go and make a deal with the devil and help Chase Young?" Troy responded.

"Chase understands us, we have a common goal. To destroy you! Chase can give us the power to do that. He already taught us much Heylin magic in a short time." Marissa said, looking at her hands blazing with fire. "Face it, there's no way to beat us. Now, you have the coin I see don't you?"

"Um, maybe, maybe not," Troy said, quickly putting the hand containing the coin behind his back.

"Ha ha, nice try. You've got two choices. Either give me the coin peacefully and I'll let you leave, or, you can make me take it by force."

Troy looked into his hand at the coin and twirled it around his finger for a second. Then he held out the hand with it and began walking towards Marissa.

"I'm glad you see it my way," Marissa told him as she began walking towards him. Then suddenly Troy turned around and bolted down the hallway away from Marissa. Marissa began hurling fireball after fireball at Troy. Troy rounded the corner out of the line of fire for her fireballs.

"I've got to get to the stairs," Troy said to himself as he ran, rounding another corner. As he made one last turn, he came face to face with Marissa standing at the end of the hallway.

"Shoot, circular hallways, why didn't I remember that?" Troy asked himself. Marissa laughed and threw a fireball at him. Troy dodged it and doubled back on his running. "I need to remember she can do that," He told himself. This time though, Marissa decided to pursue Troy, Troy rounded a corner and got halfway down the hallway stopped and pulled the coin out of his pocket.

"Ha, still here little buddy, just a little longer," he told the coin. As he put it back in his pocket, he turned to see Marissa turn the corner and face him. "Break's over," he told himself and started running again. As he turned the corner, he saw the stairs at the end of the hallway.

"Whoa, déjà vu" Troy thought. "Time to put my banister sliding skills to the test then. Troy, picked up more speed and jumped to the stairs and placed his feet on the banister. "When I become rich and famous, I'm gonna make this an Olympic sport," Troy thought as he slid down the banister. After sliding sown 4 flights of stairs on the banister, Troy jumped off the banister.

Troy didn't land on his feet; he hit the ground and within seconds heard a deafeningly loud scream…

* * *


End file.
